15 FLORA OF TASMANIA. [BilleniacecB. 
The genus Atherosperma, as thus modified, contains four species, each peculiar to the locality it inhabits. 
They may be divided into sections, corresponding to the three genera already instituted; but these appear to me to 
constitute only one genus, and that an exceedingly natural one. Brown, in Flinders' Voyage, ii. 553, mentions 
that there are two Australian Atherosperma;, and does not allude to the Monimiaceous genus (Eedycarya) found 
in the colony of Port Jackson. The perianth of Monimiacece has been described as an involucre, but analogy 
with Atherosperma woidd seem to be quite opposed to this view. Brown however proposed to separate Athero- 
spermea as a distinct natural family, characterized chiefly by the flowers being provided with a perianth, by the 
anthers, the texture of the albumen, and the relative size of the embryo. Dr. Thomson and I have however shown 
(Flora Indica, i. 164) that the structure of an Indian plant of this family renders this view untenable, that both 
are members of one Order, and that the involucre of Monimiacece is a true perianth. (Name from afyp, an awn, 
and a-TTepfia, a seed.') 
1. Atherosperma moschata (Lab. Nov. Holl. ii. 74. t. 224) ; ramulis foliis subtus perianthiis- 
que extus sericeis, foliis lanceolatis grosse serratis subtus glaucis junioribus integerrimis, perianthii tubo 
fructifero hemispheerico, staminibus 2-seriatis 15-20 basi squamulis plurimis immixtis, antheris brevibus 
obtusis. {Gunn, 531.) 
Hab. Common in beech forests throughout the Island, elev. 1-3000 feet, LaMUardiere, etc.— (Fl. Aug. 
Sept.) (*.*.) 
Distrib. South-eastern Australia. 
An erect tree, 100-150 feet high, with bright evergreen foliage, straight taper trunk, conical head, andwhorled 
spreading branches. Branchlets terete, pubescent or tomentose. Leaves on short petioles, 2-4 inches long, lanceo- 
late, acuminate, coarsely sen-ate or entire, downy and glaucous beneath. Flowers enclosed in two opposite concave 
villous bracts, solitary, on short villous curved axillary pedicels, unisexual.— Males with a short tube to the perianth, 
and limb 1 inch across, of eight spreading submembranous blunt segments in two series ; the outer broad, rounded, 
silky at the back ; the inner narrower, ovate-lanceolate. Stamens 15-20, with many scales (imperfect stamens) 
at the base of the filaments. Anthers short, blunt, with recurved valves. — Female flowers more densely villous and 
silky, with similar pedicels and opposite concave bracts. Perianth with a larger tube, and broader, shorter, more 
coriaceous segments than the male, which soon fall away and leave a truncate limb, crowned with many teeth in two 
rows, which are imperfect stamens. Fruit consisting of many achenia enclosed in the hemispherical villous tube of 
the perianth, which is of the size of a pea ; the plumose styles exserted. Achenia small, membranous ; silky hairs 
on the style simple, transparent ; stigma a lateral flat surface on the needle-shaped glabrous apex of the style." Seed 
filling the cavity of the achenium and adherent to its walls ; testa very delicate. Albumen copious, fleshy, oily, 
of large separable gramdes, aromatic. Embryo minute, at the base of the seed, immersed in the albumen, erect ; 
radicle cylindrical, blunt. Cotyledons compressed, short, slightly diverging. — The whole plant is very fra°rant, 
and the bark has been used for tea. It yields an essential oil like that of the Laurel, called Sassafras. The 
New Holland Sassafras is the allied Doryphora Sassafras of Endlicher. 
Nat. Ord. IV. DILLENIACEiE, DC. 
Australia is, in respect of number of species, the head- quarters of this Natural Order, which is essen- 
tially a tropical one in every other respect : there are no species whatever in the temperate climates of the 
Northern Hemisphere, nor in any southern one but Australia and Tasmania; whilst their total absence in 
extratropical South America, New Zealand, and South Africa, renders their abundance in Tasmania one 
of the most singular facts in its botany and in the distribution of plants generally. It is to be remarked, 
however, that though there are nine species in the Colony, none are alpine, and few ascend to the subalpine 
zone. Their abundance, habit, and profusion of yellow blossoms recall the Cisii and Potentilla of Europe. 
