THE VICTORIAN NATUEALIST. 97 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FLORA OF VICTORIA. 

 No. XII. 



By F. M. Reader, F.R.H.S. 

 (Communicated by J. A. Kershaw, F.E.S.) 

 {Read hefore the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, loth Oct., 1902. 

 Centrolepis cephaloformis, sp. nov., F. M. Reader. 



A minute, moss-like, glabrous plant, growing frequently in 

 head-like tufts, from 2 lines to i inch in diameter. Leaves shorter 

 than or as long as the scape and spike usually 4 or 5, with 

 a broad scarious sheathing base, tapering in a linear or subulate, 

 usually recurved upper part, and ending in a fine transparent 

 point ; the lower broad part about half the size of the whole leaf. 

 The inner leaf reduced to a membranous sheath, broad, white, 

 shining, and blunt ; vein strong, green or brownish. Scapes very 

 short, about }i of an inch long. Floral bracts close together ; 

 outer bract with the upper subulate recurved and fine point about 

 2 lines long, the subulate portion shorter than the broad mem- 

 branous part of the bract ; inner bract narrower, without a point, 

 about I line long, with a narrower scarious margin. Flowers 

 three, two in the outer and one in the upper bract, two of them 

 only with a stamen each, and no hyaline scales in any of the 

 heads examined. Styles connate to about the middle. Carpels 

 usually 6 to 10. 



Flowering specimens may be found as well in September as in 

 October and November. Sandy desert, Lowan, 1892 ; F. M. 

 Reader. 



This species is distinguished from C. humillima, which closely 

 resembles it, by the three flowers and two bracts. It differs from 

 C. polygyna in the number of flowers in the filament, being free 

 from the axis of the carpels, and in always being of a green or 

 pale colour. C. alepyroides has the scapes much longer and 

 slender, and an inner scale to each flower, with fewer carpels. 

 From C. glabra it is distinguished by the stouter scapes, number 

 of flowers, &c. From G. mulica also it differs in the number of 

 flowers, the stout and short scape, and the number of carpels. 

 It is allied to the Tasmanian C. muscoides ; but there are three 

 flowers in the new species, the floral bracts are much broader, 

 and the inner bract much shorter. The Tasmanian species C. 

 monogyna has narrow and short bracts, and one stamen, one 

 ovary, and one single carpel only. From G. pulvinata, a third 

 Tasmanian species, G. cephaloformis is separated by its shorter 

 and stouter scapes, longer floral bracts, by the flowers, and 

 absence of scales ; and, lastly, from the Queensland G. pusilla 

 this new species is different in the outer bract, being larger, in 

 the absence of the scales, and in the connate styles. 



