84 FLORA OF TASMANIA. [Leguminosce. 
Distkib. New South Wales and South-eastern Australia, King George's Sound? (Cultivated in 
England.) 
This is one of the commonest and most Protean plants in Tasmania, forming a bush 2-6 feet high, covered in 
spring with yellow blossoms ; it varies extremely in size, habit, and the characters of its foliage and flowers, espe- 
cially in pubescence, being sometimes covered with soft woolly down or villous hairs, at others hoary, or almost 
glabrous. Leaves scattered or whorled, i-1 inch long, coriaceous, linear or oblong, blunt, sharp or mucronated ; 
margin revolute, entire; upper surface glabrous, smooth and polished, or scabrid or pilose; under green, and 
almost glabrous, or hoary or tomentose or villous ; midrib prominent, silky or hairy ; petiole very short. Ploicers 
axillary, solitary or two or three together. Pedicels short, stout, and as well as the calyx densely villous. Corolla. 
about i inch across. Pods villous, broadly ovoid, compressed. Seeds kidney-shaped, with a black opaque testa. — 
There are two specimens of this plant in the Hookerian Herbarium marked as coming from King George's Sound, 
but as there is scarcely a Leguminous plant common to the east and west parts of extratropical Australia, 1 much 
doubt the accuracy of the habitat assigned. 
Gen. V. SPH^EBOLOBIUM, Smith. 
Calyx 2-labiatus, labio superiore majore 2-fido, inferiore 3-partito. Vexillum latum, alas oblongas vix 
superans. Carina alas subeequans, recta v. incurva. Stamina 10, libera. Ovarium stipitatum, 2-ovulatum. 
Legumen oblique stipitatum, subglobosum. Semina estrophiolata. — Eruticuli; ramis virgatis, sapius 
aphyllis; Mis dum admnt exstipulatis j pedunculis terminalibus axillaribusve, paucifloris ; bracteis mi- 
nutissimis; corollis luteis. 
An Australian genus of ten or twelve species ; all but the Tasmanian one confined to South-west Australia. — 
Generally leafless rush-like undershrubs, with slender terete often leafless stems, and axillary or terminal peduncles, 
bearing a few yellow flowers. Peduncles with minute bractese ; bracteola none or excessively minute. Calyx two- 
lipped ; upper lip broad, bifid, with diverging lobes ; lower three-parted. Corolla yellow. Standard broad-clawed. 
Wings oblong. Keel oblong, straight or curved. Stamens ten, free. Ovary stalked, two-ovulcd. Pod small, 
globose, obliquely stalked. (Named from o-^aipa, a sphere, and Ao/3os, a pod; in allusion to the form of the pods.) 
1. Sphaerolobium vimineum (Smith, Ann. Bot. i. 509) ; junceum, ramis ascendcntibus parce ra- 
mosis, foliis setaceis, pedunculis i-2-floris infra florem articulatis, calycis lobis subacutis, leguminibus 
parvis monospermis, seminibus testa maculata. — Smith in Linn. Soc. Trans, ix. 261 ; Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 
969 ; DC. Prodr. ii. 108. S. minus, Lab. Nov. Holl. i. 108.^ t. 138. {Gwm, 172.) 
Hab. Abundant, usually in marshy and grassy places, in many parts of the Colony. — (El. Nov.) [v. v.) 
Distrib. South-eastern Australia and New South Wales. (Cultivated in England.) 
A pretty rush-like little plant, a foot or so high, with slender terete striate branches, generally leafless, but in 
a young state furnished with a few minute thread-like or subulate leaves. — Floicers forming spikes or racemes 
towards the ends of the branches; peduncles one- or two-flowered, with minute bracts at the base, jointed 
beneath the flower. Floieers drooping. Calyx-lobes sharp. Corolla bright yellow, about \ inch across. Pod 
broader than long, inflated, nearly globose, on a slender pedicel that is as long as the tube of the calyx ; valves 
coriaceous. Seed solitary, broadly-oblong or ovoid, with a mottled testa. 
Obs. The al lata, which is common in South-eastern Australia, and is also a leafless plant 
like SpharoMium vimineum, has been stated by De Candolle (ii. 107) to have been collected in Tasmania ; but Mr. 
Gunn has never found it, and suspects some mistake ; it may be recognized by its.general similarity to 8} 
. it by the pod being indehiscent. 
Gen. VI. DILLWYNIA, Smith. 
latus, breviter 2-labiatus, labio superiore bifido, inferiore 3-partito. Vexillum latis- 
