106 



On some of the mountains of south-west Tasmania there 

 grows a very interesting, member of this family, known as 

 Hewardia tasmanioa. Neither it, nor anything like it has 

 been found anywhere else. The leaves are flat, narrow, 

 3 or 4 inches long, and, as common to the family, are 

 arranged in two rows. The flower is dark purplish-brown 

 or yellow, of six nearly equal perianth divisions, each 

 about an inch long, and reflexed when fully open. It has 

 the typically three outward opening stamens, but the 

 ovary, instead of being below, is nearly quite free above 

 the perianth. This is a remarkable survival or peculiar 

 reversion, but does not warrant the plant being placed 

 amongst Lilies. 



It was common once to style the Dicotyls the higher 

 flowering plants, and Monocotyls the lower, and to con- 

 sider the latter as primitive in time as well as in structure. 

 There is no warrant for this. They are two parallel lines 

 quite independent of one another, that probably diverged 

 from a common ancestor, but how and when we have no 

 record. There is no reason to suppose that Dicotyls have 

 been derived from the other; on the contrary, there are 

 some points that might lead us to conclude that the 

 Monocotyls are the more recent, and a reduced offshoot 

 from the Dicotyls. 



