76 



On a Ne^w Myoporum From South 

 Australia. 



By J. H. Maiden, Hon. Memb., and E. Betche. 



[Read July 5, 1S98.] 



Myoporum refractum, w. sp. 



A glabrous shrub somewhat prostrate, attaining a height of 

 3 feet, but usually only IJ to 2 feet high as seen, with terete 

 branches amply covered with resinous tubercles. Leaves 

 altiernate, crowded, oblong, | to f inch long, very obtuse, entire 

 or occasionally slightly crenulate, thick or somewhat succulent, 

 sessile and refracted. Flowers usually solitary (sometimes two) 

 in the axils, on slender pedicels shorter than the leaves. Calyx 

 divided to the base, the segments broad and acute, imbricate at 

 the base, about three lines long. Corolla white or often with 

 small purplish dots on the inside of the lobes ; glabrous inside, 

 the lobes shorter than the tube. Stamens generally 4 (sometimes 

 5) exserted but rather shorter than the lobes. Ovarium and 

 fruit 2-celled, not compressed. Fruit small, apparently only 

 slightly succulent, ovoid tapering to the persistent base of the 

 style. Colour of the thin pericarp cream or yellowish. Fifteen 

 miles north of Mount Distance, S.A. (on very salty, mineralised 

 damp soil — a salt-lake, now dry), M. Koch. 



The specific name is in allusion to the set of the leaves. This 

 is distinctly an ornamental species, worthy of cultivation. 



In affinity it is nearest allied to M. brevipes, Benth., also a 

 South Australian desert species, from which it is chiefly dis- 

 tinguished by the refracted leaves, the broad calyx-segments, and 

 the shape of the fruit. The flowers seem to be remarkably vari- 

 able, not only in the number of stamens, but also in the colour 

 and perhaps in the hairiness of the corolla. All corollas we ex- 

 amined were perfectly glabrous inside, but as Mr. Koch describes 

 the corolla in his notes as "bearded inside" it seems to be pro- 

 bable that both forms exist. 



