380 TWO NEW SPECIES OF PROSTANTUERA, 



Prostanthera stricta, sp.nov. 

 (Plate XXIII.) 



A densely bushy shrub, diying black, with hirsute, terete 

 branches and branchlets. 



Leaves petiolate, lanceolate, sometimes broadly so, decussate, 

 obtuse, entire, the margins recurved, scabrous-hispid above, buUate- 

 rugose, dark coloured on the upper surface, whitish underneath, 

 4-9 lines long, 2-3 or even 4 lines broad, the midrib and lateral 

 veins prominent underneath and impressed above, giving the 

 surface a bullate appearance. 



Plowers opposite, in pairs in terminal compact cylindrical 

 spikes or racemes, occasionally leafy at the base. Pedicels slender, 

 above 1 line long. Bracts linear-subulate, almost as long as the 

 calyx. Calyx 1| to 2 lines long, strongly ribbed towards the base, 

 hirsute, glabrous inside except towards the moutli, where it is 

 hoary pubescent, lips of about equal length and orbicular when 

 surrounding the fruit. Corolla not twice the length of the calj^x, 

 glabrous, the lower lip longer than the other lobes. Anthers with 

 one appendage exceeding the cell, the other adnate and shorter. 



Hab.—M.t. Vincent, near Ilford, Mudgee Road, N.S.W. 



The compact terminal spikes or racemes give the plant a 

 distinctive appearance, and by this mode of inflorescence it 

 naturally falls into Bentham's Series R a c e m o s ae. 



Its nearest ally in that Series is perhaps P. deyiticulata, that 

 species resembling it somewhat in its leaves but not in inflorescence, 

 indumentum, disposition of leaves, or anther appendages. 



Its leaves bear a strong likeness also to those of P. rugo.ta and 

 P. marifolia, but the attachment is quite different, and it diifers 

 also from these two species in its terminal inflorescence. It is 

 also a much more rigid shrub than P. marifolia. The arrange- 

 ment of its leaves would incline one from a casual examination 

 to designate it P. decussata, — a Victorian species found on 

 the rocky summits of the McAlister Range and Mt. Mueller, 

 with leaves narrower and smaller and not rugose, and with an 

 inflorescence, which is axillary, and a transverse downy curved 



