EY E. HATILAND, 393 



order is rich in beautiful and interesting genera. 0£ these I 

 select two — Philotheca and Boronia, and take an individual 

 member of each — Philotheca australis and Boronia pinnata. 



Philotheca australis, Rudge, is a very beautiful plant, well 

 deserving the attention of florists ; easy to cultivate, and delight- 

 ing even in the poorest of soils. It may be found in abundance 

 on the road side, between Manly and Middle Harbour, in the 

 early spring. The flowers are in groups of three or four, on 

 very short pedicels of not more than one line. The lobes of the 

 calyx are five, broad at the base, about one-fourth of the length of 

 the tube, triangular, imbricate, and somewhat coriaceous. The 

 petals five, lanceolate, about eight lines long, and three broad, 

 spreading and reflexed ; having a somewhat deep, longitudinal 

 furrow on the face, forming a ridge on the back, of a deeper rose 

 colour than the rest of the petal. The stamens are ten, shorter 

 than the petals, united in the lower parts of the filaments, in a 

 monadelphous circle, completely enclosing the pistil ; the broad 

 filaments being so transparent that the pistil may be seen through 

 them. The upper parts of the filaments are free, and densely 

 hirsute. The styles rising from the five carpels, are immediately 

 united in one, and this too, is densely hirsute. The ovary is five- 

 celled, each cell containing two ovules. The foliage is heath-like, 

 the leaves almost terete, nearly if not quite, sessile, erect, and 

 from three to six lines long ; while the width does not exceed 

 half a line. 



Upon a cursory examination of this flower, one is inclined to 

 think, that, if in so many cases the most careful provision has 

 been made to prevent self-fertilization, equally careful provision 

 has, in this instance, been made to ensure it. \nt\ii^ Philotheca 

 we find the pistil so imprisoned, not merely (as in Boronia) by 

 the stamens forming a cage of simple bars round it ; but so, by 

 the absence of any interstice, as to prevent any insect likely to 

 carry pollen approaching it. The stamens are continued beyond 

 the anthers ; and both these projections and the backs of the 



