202 XXVI. ZYGOPHYLLE^. [NUrana 



■W, Australia, Drummond, n. 227 ; Cornac Island, P/tW, «. 2307 ; Murchison 

 river, Oldjield, and in several other collections. 



The species is spread over the hot, more or less saline, tracts of western Asia and northern 

 Africa. A careful examination leaves no donbt of the identity so oftcQ suggested of the 

 Australian and northern plants. 



3. ZYGOPHYLLUM, Linn. 



Sepals 4 or 5. Petals as many, flat, contracted into a sliort claw. Disk 

 concave, angular or cup-sliaped. Stamens twice as many as petals, inserted 

 at the base of the disk; filaments filiform, with an aduate scale or wing-like 

 appendage at the base, which however is wanting in some of the Atis- 

 tralian species. Ovary sessile, 4- or 5-angled, narrowed at the top mto an 

 angular style, 4- or 5 -celled, with 2 or more superposed ovules in each cell. 

 Fruit capsular, with 4 or 5 angles or vertical wings, indehiscent or separa- 

 ting into cocci or opening loculicidally, the endocarp sometimes separating. 

 Seeds 1 or more in each cell, pendulous; albumen scanty- — Shrubs or 

 umlershruhs, often prostrate. Leaves opposite, with 2 distinct leaflets or 

 rarely 2-lobed, frequently fleshy. Stipules small. Peduncles 1 -flowered, axil- 

 lary, solitary or rarely 2 together. Flowers white or yellow, 



A conbidemble and widely-spread genus, though confined, with one exception, to the Old 

 World, and chiefly numerous in the desert or saline regions of central and western Asia, 

 North and South Africa. The Australian species are all endemic. 



Filaments winged at the hase. Capsule angular, loculicidal. 

 Capsule broad and truncate at the top, the angles usually pro- 

 duced into short appendages. Flowers mostly 5-merou3 . 1. Z. aj)icuhdum. 

 Capsule equally rounded at the top and the base. 



Capsule 4 to 8 lines long, the cells 2- to 4-seeded. Wings of 



the filaments toothed. Flowers usually 4-merou3 . . • 2. ^. glaucescens. 

 Capsule 2 to 3 lines long, the cells 1-seeded. Wings of the 



filauicnts small and entire. Flowers usually 5-merous . , 3, Z. iodocarpuin. 

 Capsule oblong, the angles produced at the top into erect 



appendages 4. Z. prismatotkecttni. 



Filaments subulate, not winged. 



Capsule angtilar, loculicidal, broad and truncate at the top, narrow 



at the base , 5. ^. Billardieri. 



Ca|)sule indehiscent, the angles produced into broad membranous 



wint^s 



6. Z.fruticulosum 



Varieties with leaves 2-lobfid instead of 2-foliolate occur in Z. iodocarpum, Z. primato- 

 ihecum, Z. BUIardieri, and Z.fruticulosum ; with lobed or crenate leaflets in Z. giauces- 

 ceiis and Z. iodocarpum ; and forms or states with minute flowers in several of the species. 



1. Z. apicnlatxiin, F. MuelL in Linncea, xxv. 373, and PL Vict/\. 101. 

 A dilfuse, glabrous undershrub. Leaflets 2, obliquely obovate or rarely ob- 

 long, i to 1 ill. long, on a short common petiole. Flowers usually 5-merous, 

 Filaments with rather broad wings, adnate to above the middle and toothed 

 at the top. Capsule about 4 lines long, opetiing loculicidally, broader and 

 truncate at the top, the angles very obtuse, and produced at the upper outer 

 corner into a short obtuse appendage. Seeds usually solitary in each cell- 

 MceperatatiJoHay Hook. f. FL Tasm. i. 60 ; Zmjophdliim terminale, Turcz. in 



Bull. Mosc. 185 8, i. 437. 



Queensland. Mackenzie and Dawson rivers, F. Mueller (a very small-flowered vaiiciy)- 



