Flora of AudiuUa. 



Rkksia, Ew;irt. iiov. gen. (Atn.-u-aiitjiceae-). 

 Flowers liennaphioditu, peiiiuith se^iut'iits ."). Iree. uveilapi'iii': 

 hut nearly equal; stamens 5, foriniiif^ a short stamina] tulje; anllirrs 

 two-celled, on long tilaments alternating with Hat iohes l)iti(l at tlio 

 •end, the lobes and stamens of nearly f(|ual length. Ovary onc- 

 celled, style long and slender, stigma capitate. Fruit a capsule, 

 .splitting by 'i apical boat-shaped valves of equal size and shape. 

 Seeds kidney shaped, moi-e than «)ne. 



Rkksia kkkcta, Ewart, n. sp. 



A herb, with slender but stiff and erect slightly hairy stems, bear- 

 ing terminal white scaly clusters of flowers in an irregularly dichotn- 

 mous cyme. Leaves opposite, sessile, about 5 lines long, linear 

 acuminate, each with a basal pair of small narrow pointed mem- 

 branous scaly stipules with entire or fringed edges. 



Flowers each with a pair of nearly equal scaly bracts. Perianth 

 .segments 2^ to 3 lines long, with a clearly defined midrib, and free 

 from hairs on both sides. Seeds brown, slightly curved, flat on the 

 sides, minutely tuberculate. Four seeds in each ripe fruit. 



Near Pine Creek, Northern Territory, J. H. Niemann, August, 

 1904. 



This plant, in general appearance and habit, as well as in the 

 structure of the flower, appears to come between Alternanthera and 

 Gomphrena. It differs from both genera mainly in the dehiscent 

 ■capsular fruit, with several insead of a single seed, and also from 

 Gomphrena in the capitate stigma. The long filaments and glabrous 

 perianth segments are also diagnostic features. 



To jtlace a multiseminate genus among the uniseminate series of 

 the Amarantaceae may seem an abnoi-mality, but the plant appears 

 to have no other affinity to the series (Celosiaae) with several seeds 

 A few species of Celosia have in fact only one seed, and the reverse 

 is shown by Reesia. Possibly too much importance is attached to 

 the number of the seeds in the classification of tlie Amarantaceae. 



Sknecio Daltoni, F. v. M. (Covnpositae). 



This plant was recorded by the late Mr. C. Walter (Vict. Nat. 

 xvi., 1899, p. 99) as new to Victoria (North-West). The specimen 

 (Mallee, Victoria, C. French, Junr., October, 1898) proves to be 

 Senecio Jacohaea, the common Ragwort, a naturalised alien pro- 

 claimed for certain sliires. 



