230 Lxvil. EPACRIDE.E. [MoHoioca. 



Ovary 2-celled. Flowers 5-merous, mostly solitary, minute. Leaves 



under 1 line, imbricate, obtuse 6. ii/. tamamcim. 



M 



A tall shrub or sometimes a tree 



of 20 to 30 ft. Leaves from broadly elliptical-oblong to almost oblong- 

 linear, mucronate, sliglitly convex, pale or whitish and finely veined under- 

 neath, under f in. long in some specimens, from |- to 1 in. in others. 

 Flowers pedicellate, few or many together, forming short racemes, either ter- 

 minal or also axillary, and sometimes exceeding the leaves or growing out 

 into leafy branches, with a few solitary axillary flowers. Subtefiding bracts 

 membranous, very deciduous ; bracteolcs not half so long as the calyx, ana 

 close under it. Sepals half as long as the corolla, broad, and very obtuse. 

 Corolla from scarcely 1 line to 1^ line long, campannlate, the lobes recurved, 

 shorter than tlie tube. Hypogynous disk truncate or sinuate-toothed. Ovaiy 

 l-celled, tapering into a short stvle. Fruit ovoid, li to nearly 2 Hues long. 

 —DC. Prod. vii. 755; F. Muell. Fragra. vi. 58; Sti/plielia elliptica, Sm. 

 Bot. N. IIoll. 49 ; M, albens, K. Br. Prod. 547 ; DC, Prod. vii. 755. 



Queensland, Moreton Island, F. Mueller. ^ i 



N. S. V/ales. Port Jaekson aud Blue Mountains, K Broivii, Sieber, n, 98, VIJ, aua 

 others ; Twofold Bay, F. Mueller. -n n «r 



Victoria. Sealer's Cove, Port Albert, ^Vilson's Promontory, also in Hie I5aw-mw 

 mountains at an elevation of 4500 ft., F, Mueller, 



Tasmania. Sand banks on the seacoast, Stor^. 



In the seacoast specimens the flowers are deeidedly dioecious, the males ranch larger 

 the females. In many of the smaller-flowered mountain specimens the anthers ^^' .,*^^"^^|g 

 appear to be all perfect in the same flower. In R. Brown's specimens there is consiaera 

 difTereuce in the shape of the leaf between M. elliptica, from Port Jackson, and M. alOen , 

 from Grose river, but this difference entirely disappears in other specimens. 



2. M. lineata, 72. Br, Prod. 547. A tall shrub or smaU tree, closely 

 resembling M. elliptica in foliage, but the peduncles are all short, ^^^^^^^^^^ 

 and few-flowered, the flowers smaller and sessile or nearly so within the veiy 

 small subtending bract, which is usually persistent or sometimes ver 

 minute, or even quite deficient, when the spike is reduced to a single "*J^^^ ' 

 Corolla more open than in M, elliptica^ with a very short tube, so as to 

 almost rotate, Pruit ovoid, about 1 line long.— DC. Prod. vii. 755 ; Hook. 

 f. Fl. Tasm. i. 252 ; Slyphelia glauca, LabiU. PL Nov. HolL i. Vd, t. 6L 



Tasmania- Kent's Group, Bass's Straits, and Derweiit river, R. Brown; ^^^^^^^^^^ 

 the skirts of damp forests, etc., J, B. Hooker. The Victorian specimens formerly reie 

 to thia ispecies ap[)ear to me rather to belong to M. elliptica, 



3. M, scoparia, R. Br. Prod, 547. An erect, bushy shrub of 2 ot 

 3 ft., glabrous or the branches minutely pubescent. Leaves oblong-huen , 

 mucronate, convex or with revolute margins, pale or glaucous and tin j 

 veined underneath, rarely exceeding ^ in. Flowers in little axillary ^^ x- 

 of 2 to 4 or sometimes solitary, usually reflexed, the common peduncle ex- 

 ceedingly short. Bracts very small, broad, membranous, P^^^^^^^^^^^i j-pe 

 teoles about half as long as the calyx. Sepals a little more than 2 |^ 

 loi»g, very obtuse. Corolla about 1 line long, the lobes as long as *"^ :^ ' 

 much less spreading than in M. elliptica, and thickened at the end. ^^^^ 

 gynous disk truncate or toothed. Ovary 1-celkd. Drupe about 1 hue long. 



