C. H. Ostenfeld: Contributions to West Australian Botany. II. o< 



he prefers Mueller's younger name. This question of nomenclature 

 has no interest when we unite T. nana with T. centrocarpa Hook. 



Quite apart from this, however, I think Buehenau was not 

 right in referring T. trichophora to T. nana (i. e. T. centrocarpa sens, 

 lat.). In the herbarium of Lund, Sweden, there is a sheet with 

 the following label: "Triglochin trichophorum N. ab E. NB, von 

 mir bestimmt ohne dass ich wusste dass Sie diese Familie bear- 

 beiten, N. v. E." This is written by Nees von Esenbeck to 

 Endlicher who was the author of the other Alismaceæ in Leh- 

 mann's Plantæ Preissianæ, and consequently the specimens present 

 are authentical T. trichophora. They show us a small and slender 

 plant (see PI. IV, Fig. 6) with setaceous-filiform leaves and with 

 slender, more or less bent scapes. The fruits are not fully ripe, 

 most of them even quite young, and each scape bears very 

 few or only one fruit (Nees writes, in PI. Preiss., "variat scapo 

 uniflora"). The best developed fruits are rather short (about 

 2 mm), oblong, and differ in essential points from those of T. centro- 

 carpa. F. Müller (1867, 82, quoted above) very appropriately 

 writes "fructum turgidulum". In reality the fruit is shorter and 

 thicker than in the foregoing species. It resembles T. turrifera, 

 but differs by the smaller dimensions and the very short basal 

 spurs and the shorter apical part. 



Preiss's specimens are rather poor and incomplete, and very 

 likely those seen by Buchenau were quite insufficient to show 

 the distinction from T. nana ; but from those in the Herbarium 

 of Lund it appears evident that F. v. Müller was right in separ- 

 ating it from his species. 



This view is further supported by a Triglochin which I have 

 collected in a dune-pan near Busselton (No. 144, 30. Sept. 1914) 

 and which I identify with Preiss's plant from Rottnest Island; 

 it is much better developed (see PI. IV, fig. 5) and with ripe fruit, 

 and differs only from Preiss's specimens in the straight scape 

 bearing several (up to 17) fruits; the shape of the fruit is the 

 same, and this is the main point. 



Upon Nees's original plants and upon mine I have based the 

 following short description: A small, until 8 cm high annual; 

 leaves setaceous-filiform, much shorter than the scapes; scapes 

 erect or ascending, with 1—17 stalked flowers; fruits erect-patent, 

 short (2—2.5 mm), when ripe oblong-ovoid, tapering into a conical 

 apex; back rounded and basal spurs very short, but distinct. 



The species seems to prefer the coastal region, as it has been 

 found on Rottnest Island off Freemantle on coral-sand and at 



