144 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FLORA OF TASMANIA, 



By Raleigh A. Black. 

 (Received 27tli July, 1916. Read 21st August, 1916. 

 Issued separately 31st August, 1916.) 



Chenopodium carinatum, R. Br. 

 (Keeled Goose-foot.) 



A mucli-branclied strong-smelling glandular-pubescent 

 herb ; stems usually decumbent at the base, erect or ascend- 

 ing above, 6-18 in. long. Leaves on slender petioles; blade 

 variable in size, J-| in. long or more, oblong-lanceolate to 

 oblong or ovate-oblong, obtuse, cuneate at the base, sinuate- 

 iobed or pinnatifid, rather thick, both surfaces rough, with 

 glandular pubescence. 



Flowers small, very copiously produced, in dense 

 glomerules, occupying almost all the axils, sometimes elon- 

 gated into short, leafy spikes. 



Perianth-segments 5, erect, incurved over the fruit, 

 more or less glandular-pubescent. Stamen usually 1. 

 Utricle small, compressed, erect, the pericarp adherent to 

 the seed.'' 



This plant was first discovered by the writer at Buck- 

 land, on the East Coiast, in the autumn of 1912, and later 

 on in that year at Rokeby. It is recorded as indigenous 

 to all the States of the Commonwealth, including New 

 Zealand and New Caledonia, and, no doubt, it is growing 

 elsewhere in Tasmania, but overlooked on account of its 

 resemblance to other members of Chenopodiaceae already 

 recorded in "Rodway's Tasmanian Flora." The ])lant on 

 both occasions was found growing in arable land of a light, 

 loamy character, which circumstance would at first incline 

 one to the belief that its seed had been .introduced origin- 

 ally with agricultural seed from one of the other States or 

 New Zealand. If this were so, one would naturally ask 

 the question : Why is it not extant in our general farm 

 lands, seeing that it produces such an abundance of fertile 

 seed, exceeding that of C. album, L., and C. murale, L., 

 which are closely related to it, and which are plentiful in 

 our cultivated areas, and waste places? As a rule, for a 



*"Marnial of the New Zea'end Flora," by T. F. Cheeseman. F.L.S., 

 F.Z.S. 



