79 



On a Ne^w Dilleniaceous Plant 

 fkom aknheim land, n.a. 



By Baeox Sir F. a'ox Mueller and Professor Ealph Tate. 

 [Read July 5, 1882.] 



Pachynema sphenandrum, spec. nov. 



Branclilets somewlaat diffuse or erect, numerous, wiry ; six 

 inches hi^li; leaves reduced to small semilanceolar pointed 

 scales ; flowers solitary, terminating, ultimately elongated, 

 almost stalk-like and somewhat recurved branchlets ; sepals 

 oval-roundish, the inner twice or three times as long as the 

 outer ; coronula between petals and stamens, membranous, 

 soon deeply torn into several lobes ; filaments obovate wedge- 

 shaped, confluent with the very minute anther ; ovaries two, 

 each suddenly terminated by a very short subulate style ; 

 f ruitlets nearly globular, somewhat longer than the calyx. 



At the Grorge, near Yam Creek, on granitic debris; Prof. 

 Tate. [Phyt. Mus. Melbourne and Herb. Univ. of Adelaide.] 



Branchlets thinner than those of P. jiinceum, from which 

 it also differs in habit ; scale-like leaves, hardly exceeding 

 a line in length ; calyx at the base, almost angular, turgid ; 

 inner sepals about two lines long ; petals obovate, at the base 

 cuneate, 2 to 3 lines long, probably white when fresh ; stamens 

 about eight, completing a cyclus, slightly incurved, turgid, each 

 resembling a minutely biporose anther ; coronula fully as high 

 as the stamens ; ovaries glabrous ; fruitlets when matured 

 about a quarter-inch long. Eipe seed not yet available. 



The development of a coronula and the thickening of the 

 stamens upwards render this plant somewhat anomalous in the 

 genus; still, as all other characteristics, and also the general 

 habit, sufficiently accord with Pachynema, it will be best to 

 consider this congeneric, but to establish for it a separate 

 section, to which the name Stemmatanthus is to be given, and 

 this appellation may serve also should it be deemed better 

 to isolate this plant generically. 



