58 FLORA OF TASMANIA. [Omlidea. 
Distrib. Extratropical Australia, Cape of Good Hope ? 
I have repeatedly studied the forms of this variable plant, of which Gunn has sent several, and of which we 
have as many from South Australia. Gunn at one time (according to his notes) believed that there were several 
species ; but as his specimens increased, the characters broke down, and I can now find no distinction between any 
of them. Much depends on the age of the specimens, seedlings (which resemble annuals) being much smaller in 
all their parts, less glabrous, and with narrower, deeper-coloured petals ; and there are doubtless other variations 
that may be referred to local causes, but which have no constancy, for the species grows in sea-sand, pasture-ground, 
and on rocks. The variation in the length of the spur is one of its most remarkable features, this being sometimes 
produced downwards on the pedicel for half an inch, and at others forming a mere protuberance beneath the calyx. 
The stems are suberect or procumbent, glabrous, or covered with soft spreading hairs, and the peduncles are long 
or short, erect, patent, or deflexed ; these differences, together with those of size of fohage and petals, afford such 
prominent characters that it is impossible, without examining a large suite of specimens, to believe them inconstant 
and specifically worthless. Of this however I am convinced, no less from Gunn's specimens than from the Aus- 
tralian ones, to which must be added the argument derived from the extreme tendency to sport amongst the 
cultivated species of the genus. In its largest state it is a very handsome plant ; in its smallest an insig- 
nificant weed. Whether or not all should not be referred to a Cape of Good Hope species (P. odoratisaimum, 
Drege, 1298 b, Zeyher, 426, 193; P. brevirostre, E. Meyer) is more doubtful; and I have not sufficient spe- 
cimens of that to clear up the point. Seedling plants have the leaves more lobed than older ones. 
2. Pelargonium Acugnaticum (Pet. Th. Fl. Trist. Acunh. 44. t. 13) ; caule suberecto piloso, foliis 
ovato-orbiculatis cordatis, pedunculis multifloris, petalis calyce sequilongis v. brevioribus. — DC. Prodr. i. 
660. P. clandestinum, UHerit. ined.j FL JV. Zeal. i. 41. P. erodioides, Hook. Journ. Bot. i. 252, ii. 
416. {Gunn, 1019.) 
Hab. Flinders' Island, Bass' Straits, and Circular Head, Gunn. — (Fl. all summer.) 
Distrib. New Zealand, Tristan d'Acunha, Cape of Good Hope ? 
The only Tasmanian specimens I possess are not more than 6 inches high, and are more slender than the 
majority of the New Zealand ones, which grow 2-3 feet high. It seems quite the same with a Cape of Good 
Hope species (Drege, 7466), of which however I have seen but one specimen, and therefore cannot identify ii 
satisfactorily. The only important character between this and the P. amtrale resides in the very small petals, and 
these organs vary so much in P. australe that I doubt its vabdity. 
Erodium cicutarium, L., a European introduced weed, is now commonly spread in Tasmania. 
Nat. Ord. XXI. OXALIDEiE. 
Oralis is the only Australian genus of the Order, and there are very few species of it indigenous to 
that continent, probably only one, and that common to all temperate and warm latitudes. The majority of 
the genus inhabit the Cape of Good Hope and South America, and there are also a few tropical shrubby 
and arboreous genera. Most of the species abound in oxalic acid, whence the name Wood Sorrel for 
the common English species, which is closely allied to 0. Magettanica. 
Gen. I. OXALIS, L. 
Sepala et petala 5. Stamina 10; filamentis basi monadelphis, 5 alternis brevioribus. Styli 5, 
stigmatibus capitatis. Capsula 5-gona, 5-locularis, 5-valvis. — Ilerbae ; foliis in speciebus Amtralasicu 
Z-foliolatis. 
