or BlUTISll PLA.1STS. 137 



The fourth and last plant I now submit to notice, is a most 

 curious departure from the ordinary or normal form of Flantago 

 major. I discovered three plants of it nearly together on July 

 13th of this year, in a meadow, at Norton, in the county of Dur- 

 ham. On examination, each single flower will be found to have 

 grown into a separate spike of a close pyramidal form, and the 

 entire flowering panicle or head to have put on a most distinct 

 and compact pyramidal character ; so the variety may be distin- 

 guished as — -pyramidalis — paniculis pyramidalibus densis. Smith, 

 in his ' English Flora,' vol. i. p. 214, says, " the rose-shaped 

 variety, and the panicled one, are often kept in gardens for the 

 sake of curiosity, and afford remarkable instances of vegetable 

 transformation." He mentions two varieties : — " y. P. major, pa- 

 nicula sparsa," figured in Bauhin, Hist. iii. p. 2. 503,/. ; " I. P. 

 rosea,^^ ibid. 



On referring however to Bauhin' s work, as alluded to by Smith, 

 the woodcuts there given do not resemble my variety, which is by 

 no means rose-shaped. In the accompanying paper (d.) I have 

 dried two flowering heads of the usual form of the Flantago major, 

 which were growing near this varied plant, in order that this 

 curious yet very beautiful transformation may be the more di- 

 stinctly apparent. The rest of the plant does not differ from the 

 common growth of P. major. 



Botanical Eeport on the North- Australian Expedition, under the 

 command of A. C. Gregory, Esq. By Dr. Eeedinand 

 MiJLLEE, Botanist to the Expedition. Communicated by the 

 Colonial Office. 



[Eead Dec. I7th, 1857.] 



Sydney Botanic Garden, 20th May, 1857. 



Sm, — I do myself the honour of transmitting to you a brief ge- 

 neral report on my botanical researches, instituted during your 

 exploration of intertropical Australia. 



In order to elucidate how far I was justified to advance the 

 general conclusions contained in the following pages, I beg to 

 refer introductorily both to the extent and the directions of your 

 tracks of exploration, along which I endeavoured to ascertain, not 



head of the Flantago major, very hke my transformed plant ; but it seems 

 less, and not so pyramidal in its entire form. Mr. Baxter describes it as var. »/, 

 and says it was discovered near Oxford, July 26, 1835. 



