2 LXTTI. STYLIDIE.i:. [Stj/Udl 



Km, 



•- 



of the lobes or labellum much smaller and turned down or rarely nearly as 

 long and curved upwards, the other 4 ascending in pairs. Column elongated 

 and bent down or folded, elastic in most of the species if not in. all. Stigma 

 undivided. Ovary 2-cellcd. — Habit and foliairc those of the Order, plowersin 

 racemes^ panicles or corymbose cymes on terminal peduncles or radical scapes, 



A gciuis comprising; nearly the whole Order, and entirely Australian, with the exceptiott 

 of one spenies extending into tropical Asia, and another East Indian species not yet identified 

 with certainty with any Australian one. The majority of the species form a rosette or 

 spreading tuft of radical leaves, from the midst of which springs the scape. Sometimes the 

 following year the new leaves and scape are close upon the old ones, forming a dense, tufted 

 stock, the bases of the leaves sometimes assuniing a bulbous appearance^ in others, one or two 

 short stems are formed above the old tuft, each crowned by a new rosette and scape, and some- 

 times several successive tufts of leaves, separated by short stems or branches^ may be observed ; 

 these are termed, proliferous stems or branches, and occasionally emit adv eiitiiions roots 

 from several of the lower tufts. In a few species the leaves are all, or only the small upper 

 ones, in almost regular whorls; and in a few others they are alternate or scattered without 

 fonning tufts. The inflorescence in dilTerent species shows every gradation, from the simple 

 raceme or raceme-like panicle to the corymb or to the dichotonious cyme with sessile or 

 pedicellate flowers in the forks. The precise form of the corolla, the direction of its lobes 

 in the expanded tiower, and the small scales or glandular appendages in the throat or at the 

 base of the labellum may be constant iu niany cases, and might serve for good specific cha- 

 racters ; but these parts are so delicate that there is great uncertainty in describing them 

 from dried specimens. Different botanists have described them difiereutly in the same 

 species, and I have myself found considerable discrepancies in this respect in different 

 flowers even of the same specimens; the characters founded on them must therefore not be 

 absolutely relied on. The colour of the flower is also said to be constant in some species, 

 and has been made use of as a specific character since the time of Brown; b^it it appears to 

 be variable iu other species, and in most cases it is either unknown, or only given iu vague 

 and often contradictory notes of collectors. It is only a botanist resident on the spot that 

 can complete the specific characters in the above respects. 



Sect. I, Tolypangium. — Capsule globular -ovoid ^ obovo'id or oblong, 



Skutes I. Squaraosse. — Slock tufted, rarely p-oHferous. Leaves radical^ intermixed 

 tciih lanceolate, scarious scales^ which are wanting in all the following sections, Scaj^es 

 leafless^ except a few scattered bracts. — Western sjjecics. 



Inflorescence a long raceme, simple or slightly branched at the base. 

 Leaves obovate or orbicular, not above 1 in. long. Scape 



glabrous 1. 5. carnosnm. 



Leaves linear or lanceolate, 4 in. to 1 ft. long. Scape hairy . 2. S. inlosnm. 

 Inflorescence a loose thyrsoid panicle. Leaves linear. Scape hairy. 

 Leaves usually glabrous. Scapes (with the infloresceuce) much 



longer than the leaves , ?», S. redupJicatum, 



Leaves pubescent. Scapes but slightly exceeding the leaves . . 4. & ^cabridum. 

 Inflorescence short, compact and spike-like. I^eaves linear. 



Spike oblong, hirsute as well as the scape. Bracts small . . . 5. ^S. hirsutum. 

 Spike contracted into a depressed head. Bracts i in. long with 



scarious margins 6. 5. crossocephahim. 



(In a few of the Lineares and other series the base* of the old leaves persist on the stotlc 

 in the form of scales, always much shorter and more rigid than the true scales of the 

 SquamoscE.) 



SeRiks If. Peltigerae, — Stock tufted or proliferous-hrauched. Leaves radical- 

 Floivers in a dense spike or cluster with aumerous bracts produced below their insertion 

 the scapes otherwise leafless. — Western species. 



Scapes erect and rush-like or long and twining. Spike oblong. 



riowers almost sessile 7. S.junceum. 



J 



