36 XL. LEGUMiNOSiE. \_MirheUa, 



slender, pubescent. Leaves alternate, narrow-linear, with pungent points and 

 closely revolute margins, under \ in. long, glabrous. Flowers (bluish-pur- 

 ple?) clustered in the upper axils on very short pedicels. Calyx slightly 

 pubescent, rarely exceeding 2 lines and usually shorter, the lobes shorter than 

 the tube, the 2 upper ones united in a truncate or shortly 2-lobed upper lip. 

 Standard twice as long as the calyx; keel shorter than the wings but exceed- 

 ing the calyx, obtuse or with a short erect point. Ovary glabrous or slightly 

 hirsute, with 6 to 1 ovules. Pod OA^oid, about 3 lines long, but not seen in 

 a perfect state.— Cliorkema Baneri, Benth. in Ann. Wien. Mus. ii. 71. 



N. S. Wales. Paramatta and lliclunonJ, E, Brown ; rocky bills, Cox's river, A> 



Cunningham ; Illawarra, Backhouse; New England, C, Stuart ; also in Leichhardfs col- 

 lection. 



10. M. apeciosa^ Sieb. in DC. Prod, ii. 115. An erect shrub of 2 to 

 3 ft., with nuniei-ous virgate angular branches, slightly hoary-pubescent or 

 glabrous. Jjeaves scattered or verticillate in threes, narrow-linear, obtuse 

 with a small straight sometimes almost pungent point, -^ to f in. long, the 

 margins closely revolute, glabrous, scarcely reticulate. Flowers bluish-purple, 

 almost sessile in the upper axils, the u])per ones forming a terminal interrupted 

 spike leafy at the base. Calyx fully 3 lines long, hoary-pubescent, the lobes 

 acute, as long as the tube, the 2 upper ones united to the middle. Standard 

 twice as long as the calyx, emarginate ; wings nearly as long; keel very short, 

 obtuse. Ovary sessile, glabrous, with about 12 ovules. Pod thickly ovoid, 

 about 4 or 5 lines long.— Bot. Reg. 1841, t. 58 5 Eeichb. Icon. Exot. 1. 191. 



N. S. "Wales. Port Jackson, Sieber, n. 3G7 ; and FL Mixt. n, 570 ; aLuiiJant in arid 

 rocky tracts of the Blue Moautalns, A. Cnnnhujham ; New England, C. Stuart; Illawarra, 

 Fraser, Backhouse, Shepherd. Tlie figure of M. floribunda, Paxt. Mag. viii. 103, gives 

 mnch more the idea of this plaut than of the true wesicru M.jloribunda, 



11. M. floribunda, Benth, in Lindl. Swan Rlv. App. 12. A low, nincb- 

 branehed, divaricate or ditfuse shrub or undershrub, the young branches hoary- 

 pubescent. Leaves scattered or irregularly opposite or in threes, narrow- 

 linear with a recurved point and closely revolute margins, usually under \ iu. 

 l^"aj glabrous and not reticulate above^ slightly pubescent* iniderneath. 

 Flowers bluish-purple, numerous although solitary in each axil, scattered 

 <ilong the branches and not forming a terminal raceme as in M. speciosa, which 

 this species closely resembles. Calyx under 3 lines long, silky-pubescent, the 

 lobes equal to the tube, the 2 upper ones united above the middle. Standard 

 fully twice as long as the calyx ; wings shorter ; keel shorter than the wings, 

 but not so short nor so broad as in Jf. speciosa. Ovary sessile, glabrous; 

 ovules usually 8. Pod, oblong, 4 to 5 lines long, much narrower than in M. 

 speciosa.—M. speciosa. Sweet, Fl Austral, t. 31, not of Sieb. : if. pulchella, 

 Meissn. in PI. Preiss, ii. 221. 



^_'^'*^- :^^**^*^^*- Swan River, Bnmmond, 1st Coll and 2nd ColL n. 92, Barnes; 

 iVlouut Yulngan, Oldjetd, The flowers usuaUy dry blue, but hi Buro-es's specimens they 

 look yellowish, . n 1 



M 



A shrub of 2 or 3 ft., with ascending or vir- 



gate branches, glabrous or pubescent when young. Leaves narrow-linear, 

 obtuse with revolute margins, under | in. long, usually clustered round a 

 slender but rigid spreading thorn (an abortive branch), as lung as or rather 



