18 ■ Eivart, White and Recf^ : 



come from N. Australia, but one specimen is marked Geograplie 

 Bay. This is in W. Australia, below latitude 33 deg., which is 

 very far South for a tropical plant. Many tropical Queensland 

 plants run down the coast into N. S. Wales, however, and N.S. 

 Wales plants are found far down the east coast of Victoria. 

 The moister conditions along the coast render temperature less 

 inoperative as a limiting factor on distribution, and the prox- 

 imity to the sea lessens the extremes of temperature. It is 

 possible that tropical plants may also travel down the W. coast 

 of Australia and reach sheltered localities, where they survive, 

 as apparently in this case. 



Warburg, in Enger's Pflanzenreicli, 1900, p 46, makes both 

 P. odoratissimus and P. spiralis synonymous to P. tectorius, Sol., 

 (Prim. fl. in ins. pacif. inedit, 350. Parkinson's Journal of a 

 Voyage to the S. Seas in H.M.S. Endeavour, 1773), L. odora- 

 tissimum dates from 1781. This is another instance of changing 

 an established name for trivial priority reasons. 



Polygonum platycladum, F. v. M. Trans. Phil. 8oc. Vict., 

 1858, vol. ii., p. 73 = Muehlenbkckia platyclada, Meissn. 

 Bot. Ztg., 1865, vol. xxii., p. 313. (Polygonaceae). 



The two species are kept apart in the Kew Index, and tlie 

 locality for the latter given as Salomon Islands, and for the 

 former New Caledonia. The plant is occasionally grown in 

 gardens in Australia on account of its curious habit (flattened 

 branches, deciduous leaves, and lateral clusters of small flowers 

 and fleshy fruits). It is evidently a native ])oth of the Salomon 

 Islands and of New Caledonia. The flesliy periantli, darkening 

 from red to almost black, is quite different to that of Poly- 

 (joiiuin. In the figure in Engler's Pfl;in/.enfamilien (III., 2, 

 ]). 32) the stigmas are exaggerated, and the i)erianth represented 

 as 6 instead of 5 partite. The plant was transferred by Mueller 

 in 1863 to Cnrcoloha platyclada, F. v. M. (Curtis's Botanical 

 Magazine, Tab., 5382), and by Meissner in 1865 to its present 

 jiosition. He apparently overlooked its flrst locality. It also 

 occurs in New Ireland, Papua. (Mueller, Notes on Papuan 

 plants, IV., 1876, p. 60). 



