BY J. H. MAIDEN AND E. BETCHE. IIO 



R. SPRENGELIOIDES, 11. sp. 



An erect shrub attaining above 5ft. in height, with vii-gate 

 slight!}' pubescent branches. Leaves crowded, erect or somewhat 

 spreading, rigid, very shortly petiolate, linear-lanceolate, slightly 

 concave, the longest 1^ inches long and scarcely H lines broad, 

 tapering to a rigid though obtuse point. Flowers in the axils 

 of the leaves, on peduncles about 4 to 5 lines long. Sepals 

 narrow, rather acute, tapering from a broad base, about 2 or 

 occasionally 3 lines long. Corolla white, very open, broadly 

 campanulate or almost rotate, occasionally 6- or even 7-lobed, the 

 tube about 1 line long, the lobes ovate-lanceolate, rather acute, 

 about three times as long as the tube. Filaments flat in the 

 adnate upper part, tapering towards the base; anthers about as 

 long as the filaments, the terminal slit extending scarcely half 

 way down, leaving the longitudinal dissepiment in the lower part 

 of the anther. Style about half as long again as the anthers, but 

 scarcely longer than the corolla; stigma small and truncate. 



Southern edge of King's Table-land, Blue Mountains, N.S.W. 

 Not rare on the sandstone clifis descending into the Cox River or 

 Burragorang Valley (J. H. Maiden and W. Forsyth, October, 

 1898). 



The true position of the genus in the system is a matter of doubt 

 to us. In its adnate and two-celled anthers, it approaches the curious 

 Tasmanian genus Prionotes alone, but differs widely from it in 

 every other respect; in the shape of the corolla, connivent anthers 

 and absence of hypognous scales it much resembles Sprengelia, 

 but the foliage is totally difierent ; in general appearance it 

 strikingly resembles the Tasmanian Epacris mucronulata, R.Br., 

 but the resemblance is confined to the foliage and long peduncles. 

 Though foliage is generally of little systematic value, all 

 systematists agree in dividing the tribe Epacrete into three 

 natural groups according to the base of the leaves; following 

 these accepted systems we have to place it next to Epacris, though 

 with this genus it has only the festivation of the corolla in 

 common, besides the foliage and bracts. 



