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Gelehrte Gesellschaften. 



Linnean Society of New South Wales. 



Meeting of November 30th 1881. 



The President J. C. Cox, M.D., F.L.S., &c., in the Chair. Mr. Auguatus 

 Gross and Mr. Baker were introduced as visitors. Members elected : Mi*. 

 E. Comb es, C.M.G., and Mr. W. A. Brodribb, M.L.A. 



Baron Ferd. von Mueller read a paper entitled: „Two new Species 

 of plants from New South Wales". — 



Jacksonia Stackhousii. Dwarf, procumbent or ascendant, not pungent; 

 branchlets very thin, finely or scantily silky, gradually glabrescent, slightly 

 furrowed ; flowers dispersed or in pairs along the upper part of the branchlets ; 

 calyces silvery-silky, little longer than broad, very angular from the prominent 

 edges of the lobes ; upper lip of the calyx divided only to one-third of its 

 length into two deltoid teeth; lower lip slit to the base into three ovate- 

 lanceolar segments ; tube suddenly narrow , three times shorter than 

 the Segments ; petals equally yellow , all of about the same length ; 

 ovary sessile ; pod shorter than the calyx , almost ovate , compressed silky 

 outside, nearly sraooth inside; seeds 1 or 2, grey, minutely blackish-dotted. 

 This hitherto undescribed Jacksonia is in habit and ramification similar to 

 J. angulata ; but the calyces of the latter are more distinctly stalked and 

 have their five segments equally long, linear-lanceolar, more pointed and 

 slightly downy inside, the corolla is more evidently surpassed in length by 

 the calyx, the lower petals being the shortest and dark purple. The ripe 

 fruit may also prove to be different. In the characteristic of the upper lip 

 of the calyx not being deeply divided J. Stackhousii approaches, among the 

 33 congeners now known, only J. odontoclada and J. ramosissima. Several 

 instances are known of very remarkable repetitions of West-Australian forms 

 of plants occurring in the most eastern regions of Australia, though no similar 

 species have been discovered in the wide interjacent spaces, the imitative 

 species being however not identical. Even quite recently the genera Boronia, 

 Agonis, Brachyloma and now also Myoporum, have furnished such examples. 

 To these instances another has now been added by Captain Stackhouse, 

 R.N., who sends from near the entrance of the Ciaren ce River the above 

 characterised Jacksonia, which he rightly recognized as nearest to the West- 

 Australian J. angulata. The same plant had been collected some years ago 

 by Mr. C. Moore and Mr. W. Carron on sand ridges near Cape Byron, 

 and lately the Kev. B. Scortechini has found it also within Queensland 

 boundaries. 



Myoporum Bateae (Sect. Disoon.) Shrubby, erect, glabrous ; leaves scattered, 

 elongated, narrow-lanceolar, of thinly chartaceous consistence, minutely serru- 

 lated, decui-rent into a very short stalk; flowers from 4 to 10 in each Cluster, 

 somewhat or considerably longer than their thin stalklets; segments of the 

 calyx narrow-lanceolar, nearly three times shorter than the corolla ; the lobes 

 of the latter semiovate-orbicular, glabrous, about as long as the tube ; throat 

 of the corolla very scantily short-downy ; filaments about as long as the 

 corolla, but much longer than the anthers, smooth ; ovary strongly compressed, 

 constantly two-celled, with one ovule in each cell ; fruit very small, scarcely half 

 exserted, obcordate or truncate-roundish, rather prominently two-edged, two-see- 

 ded ; pericarp very thin, not succulent. — On rivulets near Mount üromedary ; Miss 

 Mary Bäte. — A shrub, attaining a height of about 5 feet, branchlets smooth, 

 slightly viscid. Leaves flat, when well developed 3 to 4 inches long, i/3 to 1/2 iuch 

 broad, copiously and almost transparently dotted ; gradually attenuated mto 

 the narrow acute summit. Stalklets of flowers IV2 to 3 lines long. Segments 

 of calyx hardly exceeding the length of 1 line. Corolla outside more or less 

 rosy-purplish ; its lobes measuring scarcely '/s inch , the tube about as long. 

 Stamens four. Style setaceous, glabrous, rather above 1 line long. Fruit 

 measuring hardly more than i/^ inch, somewhat turgid, very compressed at 

 the margin. Seeds oblong-ellipsoid, pendent from the roof of the cell. This 

 handsome and evidently rare species is in foliage very much like the genuine 



