148 Neue Litteratur. 



Hooker, J. D., Pinus Lambertiana. (The Gard. Chron. New Ser. Vol. XXIII. 

 1884. No. 575. p. 11.) 



Mueller, Ferd., Baron von, Notes on an undescribed Victorian species of 

 Swainsona. (Extra print from the Melbourne „Chemist and Druggist". 

 October. 1884.) 



[On various occasions I have endeavoured, through tbese pages to 

 arouse the interest of pharmaceutic gentlemen in the native Vegetation, 

 as they are placed often in favourable positions , to test chemically 

 the properties of plants within their ready reach, and niight also 

 frequently aiFord to medical practitioners important aid in new thera- 

 peutic experiments. It was also much my wish, to obtain dried plants 

 as pressed specimens, particularly from far inland-districts, so that the 

 geographic distribution of any species might be further traced, and 

 thus, by the aid of numerous botanic amateurs, finally be determined. 

 This time I beg to give the description of a Swainsona, hitherto not 

 recognised as a distinct specific form , and this affords me the oppor- 

 tunity to remark, that we possess as yet no accurate account, either 

 physiological or chemical , of the virulent principle , which pervades 

 several and perhaps many of the so innocuously looking species of 

 this genus. 



Swainsona oncinotropis. — Procumbent, ascendent, pubescent ; leaflets 

 rather small, 11 — 25, cuneate-obovate or offener ovate-lanceolar, occa- 

 sionally some ovate-obcordate , mostly short-pointed ; stipiiles rather 

 large, herbaceous, almost dimidiate-cordate, but pointed ; racemes short ; 

 flowers rather small ; stalklets downy , hardly as long as the calyx ; 

 bracts nearly as long, membranous, broadish; calyx outside scantily 

 grey-hairy, its lobes as long as the tube , much narrowed towards the 

 pointed apex; petals all dark violet-coloured , the upper without any 

 prominent callosities; lower petals almost cyclically curved, nearly 

 flat, upwards not broad, but blunt; lateral petals shorter than the 

 others ; style comparatively long , almost capillary , much curved, 

 bearded only on the inner side towards the summit; fruit sessile, 

 somewhat downy ; cymbous-ellipsoid , ascendingly pointed , by the 

 intrusion of the septum bilocular; seeds pale-brown, not shining. 



Near the Wimmera and Richardson-Creek; on the latter found 

 by Dr. Zichy-Woinarski; collected also at Wagga Wagga by Mr. 

 C r u c h. 



This Swainsona is readily recognised among allied species by the 

 peculiar shape of its lower petals , which form finally an almost com- 

 plete circular coil, though at first the curvature does not reach fully 

 around, and may then be little more than semicircular. Swainsona 

 procumbens, with which it grows conjointly on the spots of discovery, 

 has the torsion of its lower petals more complicated , and dift'ers 

 furthermore in the large size of all its organs, also in mostly glabrous 

 stems, in less haii-y leaves, in longer racemes, in the yellow tip of the 

 carinal petals , longer , straighter and almost glabrous pods , and in 

 some other respects ; but the great B e n t h a m , whose cleath we had 

 recently to lament, recorded already our plant as a var. minor of S. 

 procumbens. Of the only two other congeners with much incurved 

 lower petals, namely Swainsona Drummondi and S. plagiotropis , the 

 first mentioned differs already in the spirally twisted end of the lower 

 petals, the other in larger flowers with red petals, and outside-bearded 

 style.] 



Blühende Pflanzen auf den Gipfeln der Central-Karpathen. (Jahrbuch des 



Ungarischen Karpathen-Vereins. Jahrg. XL 1884. Hft. o/4. p. XXXVII.) 

 Pierre, Diplotnemma sebifera, nouvelle Sapotacee de Bornöo. (Archives 



neerlandaises des scienc. exactes et naturelles. T. XIX. 1884. No. 1.) 

 TVittmack, L., Eine neue Agave, Agave Wiesenburgensis Wittm. (Abtheilung 



Euagaveae.) Mit Abbildung. (Wittmack's Garten-Zeitg. IV. 1885. No. 2. 



p. 13.) 



