Flora of Australia. 545 



M . (etfciis, F. V. M., therefore, must be added to the Victoriun 

 flora, altliough there is a possibility it may really be of S. 

 African origin. 



1'halaris COMMITATA, Roseu and Schultz, Toowoomba, Canary 



Grass. 



This unduly belauded fodder grass is considered by the Kew 

 Herbarium to be Phalaris bulbosa, L., but by Hackel is con- 

 sidered the type of a new species (P. stenoptera, Fedde's Reper- 

 torium, v. 1908, p. 333). Several growers report that P. 

 canariemis appears commonly when the plant is grown, and 

 there is a possibility that the plant may be a mixed hybrid of 

 P. canarieiisis with p. arundinacea and bulbosa, the canari- 

 ensis strain predominating, and continually appearing in pu.e 

 form. 



Sttthelia (Solemscia) elega>s, D.C, var brevior, n. var., Max 

 Koch, 1907, Wooroloo, W.A., No. 1347. 



The variety has some of the flowers two together in the axil 

 of one leaf. Bentham gives them as solitary in the axils for 

 the type, but even here very occasionally two flowers may occur 

 to one leaf. In addition the flowers are shorter, being ^ to f 

 inch instead of | to 1 inch, and the upper half of the corolhi 

 tube is filled with dense white hairs continued over the inside 

 of the lobes. 



The history of the species is curious. Bentham in the Flora 

 Austr. gives it as S. tenuifuyra. Lindl., and placed it in Sect. 

 II., Soleniscia, which he characterised by the " very slender 

 corolla tube, quite glabroua inside." This latter character is 

 copied from Lindley (Bot. Reg. 25, App., p. 25. 1839), who, 

 however, gives the name as S. tenui folia. De Candolle, Pro. 

 vii., 737, liad described the species as Soleniscia elegans a year 

 previously, and noted that the inside of the corolla was hairy, 

 and the species was transferred by Sonder (Lehm. PI. Pr. I., 

 296) to Styphelia. There is, however, no justification for re- 

 ferring the plant to S. tenuiflora, Lindl. Lindley did not use 

 this name, he gives a different description, and at a later date 



11 



