BY J. H. MAIDEN AND E. BETCHE, 19 



small leaf-opposed cymes, generally shorter than the petioles at 

 the time of flowering, but the fruits often on long peduncles. 

 Buds small, obtuse, somewhat angular. Calyx tomentose, spread- 

 ing to about 3 lines diameter. Petals with a narrow linear 

 lamina shorter than the calyx-lobes. Staminodia spreading in 

 the flowers examined, tomentose. Capsule densely covered with 

 rather long stellate-hairy setae; dehiscence septicidal. 



Barber's Creek (between Moss Vale and Goulburn, J. H. 

 Maiden, January, 1898). 



The two Rulingias described above are both allied to the W. 

 Australian i?. parvijiova, Endl., and to our eastern M. liermannicB- 

 folia, Steetz, with which they have the prostrate habit in 

 common. The species from Dubbo is sharply distinguished from 

 both by the glabrous staminodia, and in addition from R. lier- 

 mannicefoUa by the broader and longer ligula of the petals, and 

 the foliage. The species from Barber's Creek differs fi'om JR. 

 Jierman nice folia only in the shape, size and consistence of the 

 leaves, and in the longer setse of the capsules; the characters of the 

 flowers are quite identical in both species. Bentham's remark 

 under R. fcirviflora in the Flora Australiensis (Vol. i. p. 240) 

 "it is much more nearly allied in character to the eastern R. lier- 

 man III (jef alia, from which the chief differences consist in habit 

 and foliage," applies as much to R. prostrata, in fact to all three 

 species, R. jjaroijiora, her ■rnantiicefolia, and 2?7'ostrata. The 

 typical /i. her mannice folia fronj the coast, between Port Jackson 

 and Botany Bay, has with its small almost coriaceous leaves, a 

 very different appearance from R. prostrata, yet when in the 

 future the geographical range and the forms of this species are 

 better ascertained it may be expedient to include it amongst the 

 varieties of R. hennannicefolia. 



