108 CXXXII. JUNCACES. [ Xerotes. 
thing margins. Scapes 1 to 2 in. long, bearing a single ovoid-tur- 
binate head 5 or 6 lines diameter. Bracts lanceolate-linear, very acute 
and rigid. Perfect flowers unknown, but in all the rather numerous 
specimens both of Preiss and Drummond there is within each bract 
what appears to be a perianth split nearly to the base into a dense tutt 
of long hairs enclosing an apparently imperfect narrow ovary, tapering 
into a short style, with minute spreading stigmatie lobes. Capsules 
(which I have not seen) transversely wrinkled according to 
Endlicher. 
W. Australia. Swan river, Preiss, n. 1540 ; Drummond, n. 330. 
Drummond's n. 124 may possibly be the male of this species, but the flowers are 
all fallen away from the specimens, leaving a short rhachis which had probably borne 
several heads. 
Section III. SonaNoxERos.— Barren stems rush-like, leafless except 
sheathing scales at the base. Flowering scapes very short and 
leafless, with 2 or 3 flower-heads, the males and females nearly 
similar. 
enclosed in several sheaths and not dilated into a sheath at the base), 
terete, slender but rigid, 1 to 2 feet long. Flowering scapes attach 
to i i 
W. Australia. Darling Range, rare, Preiss, n. 1533. 
27. X. juncea, F. Muell. in Hook. Kew Journ. viii. 333.—Stems 
numerous, tufted on a creeping rhizome, leafless except sheathing 
scales covering the base for about 1 in., of which 1 or 2 sometimes 
bear a short lamina ; barre i 
terete, rigid, rush-like, ending in a pungent point, mostly under 1 ft. 
high. Flowering scapes very much shorter, attached to the rhizomes 
with a terminal globular head 3 or 4 lines diameter, and 2 or 3 others 
lower down sessile and enclosing the seape. B 
as the perianth, split into a hairy fringe as in X. leucocephala, but not 
nearly so deeply. Flowers only Known from the remnants of some 
D——— 
Ug NTOIHRESERS AID s 
