C. H. Ostenfeld : Contributions to West Australian Botany. I. 15 



2. Cymodocea isoetifolia Ascherson, 

 in Sitzber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin (1867) 3; in Das Pflanzenreich 

 IV 11 (1907) 149; Bentham, Fl. Austr. VII (1878) 178; F. v. Müller, Sec. 

 Census Austr. PI. (1889) 204. 



Both male and female plants were cast ashore at Carnarvon 

 (No. 262) ; they had a dark green colour. Sterile shoots were found 

 at the beach of Geraldton (No. 263). But in none of the collec- 

 tions were creeping rhizomes present. 



The species has been reported once before from West Au- 

 stralia (Champion Bay) by P. Ascherson (see e. g. his paper of 

 1905), but this record is not quoted by Bentham, nor by F. v. 

 Müller. In the herbarium of Lund, Sweden, and in the National 

 Herbarium of Victoria I have seen specimens labelled "Champion 

 Bay, West Australia, comm. F. v. Müller" and dated " 26 / 7 1879, 

 Ascherson". But I am unable to state the name of the collector 

 or to give any further communication throwing light upon this 

 record, the correctness of which has been doubted. Nevertheless 

 my discovery of the plant both at Geraldton (= Champion Bay) 

 and at Carnarvon corroborates it. 



As to the other parts of Australia, Bentham (1. c.) reports it 

 as doubtful from Edgecombe Bay, Queensland (Fitzalan), and I 

 have seen specimens from this locality in the Herbarium of Kew; 

 they belong really to our species. I may add that fragmentary 

 leaves of a sea-grass from Port Denison, Queensland (Fitzalan) in 

 the National Herbarium of Victoria also belong to C. isoetifolia 

 for which we now have certain records from both the west and 

 the east sides of tropical Australia. 



The general distribution of the species extends from the Red 

 Sea eastwards to Oceania. The West Australian localities are 

 the most southerly and the only ones which lie south of the 

 tropic of Capricorn. 



C. isoetifolia and its near relative C. manatorum Aschers. (Sitz- 

 ber. Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin (1868) 19) form the well-defined 

 subgenus Phycoschoenus Aschers, characterized by a cymose inflor- 

 escense and the terete and filiform leaf-blades. The two species 

 are very closely allied. Ascherson (1868, p. 19) gives the following 

 distinctive features for C. manatorum : "schon steril durch längere 

 und dünnere, trocken kaum 1 mm breite, beim Trockenen schwarz 

 werdende Blätter zu unterscheiden, während sie bei der C. isoeti- 

 folia eine helle, graugrüne Farbe beibehalten. Die bisher allein 

 vorliegenden weiblichen Blüthen und Früchte weichen von denen 

 der C. isoetifolia durch viel beträchtlichere Grösse ab (letztere 



