^4 FLORA OF TASMANIA. [Leguminosa. 
Boot woody ; stem short, stout, woody, giving off many slender, procumbent, almost filiform, terete branches, 
2-10 inches long, sparingly silky or pubescent towards their tips with appressed hairs. Leaves shortly petioled, 
coriaceous, singularly variable in size and form on the same branch ; the lower generally broadly elliptical-ovate, 
acute, mucronate, \-\ inch long; the upper (sometimes all) 1-2 inches long, narrow linear, linear-oblong or 
narrow elliptical, glabrous above, beneath glabrous or covered with appressed hairs, lvtinilainl ; mar-ins recurved, 
apex generally mucronate. Flowers small, blue, pedicelled. Pods ! inch long, obliquely orbicular, acuminate. 
Valves pubescent or glabrous. Seed ovoid, almost black, with a large caruncula.— Plate XV. Fig. 1, 2, leaves ; 3, 
flower; 4, vexillum; 5, ala; 6, carina; 7, stamens; 8, pistil; 9, vertical section of ovary; 10, ovule; 11, pod; 
12, pod with one valve removed ; 13, seed -.—all magnified. 
Gen. IX. BOSSLEA, rent. 
Calyx bilabiatus, labio superiore majore, bifido, inferiore tripartite V&rilhm planum, subrotundum. 
Stamina 10, monadelpha, vagina Integra. Ovarium, sessile, pluri-ovulatum. Legumen pedicellatum, plano- 
compressum, polyspermum, sutura utraque incrassata.— Frutices v. suffruticuli ; ramis terelilus v. com- 
press-is, j,/,, ;/{,„/: ;/;,,,„ ■> v , , v /y//, ; fuliis (hn> tuhvat suap/icibus, a?!,-;;,:*, ztijMis; floribus fiavis, pur- 
p/'reo-variegatis; pedicellis hracteolatis. 
Between thirty and forty species of this genus are known, all of them confined to Australia, and equally divided 
between the east and west extratropical parts of the continent, a very few being common to both coasts, and there 
are also several tropical ones. The species are often exceedingly protean in form and habit; many are leafless, 
having compressed or winged stems; others have leaves, which are always alternate, simple, and stipulate.— Flowers 
pedicelled, yellow, variegated with purple. Calyx two-lipped ; upper lip large, bifid ; lower three-parted. Stamens 
ten ; the filaments united into a complete tube. Ovary many-ovuled. Pod stalked, compressed, generally oblong, 
it- margins thickened. fXamed in honour of M. Boix-vf>)i-La„>arl'i„irre, a companion of I. a Peyrouse.) 
1. Bossiaea ensata (Sieb. Plant. Exsicc. n. 434) ; erecta v. decumbens, aphylla, ramis complanatis, 
cost! crassa, alis tenuissime striolatis denticulatis, dentieulis floriferis, pedicellis medium versus bibractco- 
latis, calyce glabro, carina nuda, legnminibus lineari-oblongis glabris, seminibus 2-3 rufis transverse 
oblongis, caruncula crassa.-J9C Prodr. ii. 117 ; Sweet, FL Australas. t. 51. B. virgata, Hoot Bot. Mag. 
t. 3986; Sweet, FL Austral, t. 51. {Gunn, 176, 1059, 1059?) 
Hab. Abundant throughout the Island, in various soils and situations, ascending to 4000 feet, Law- 
rence, Gunn, etc.— (FL Oct.) (v. v.) 
Disteib. New South Wales, South-east and South-west Australia. (Cultivated in England.) 
A very common plant, and extremely variable in size and habit, becoming a tall shrub, 3-5 feet high, in rich soils, 
a dwarf plant in sterile places, and procumbent in alpine situations. I cannot detect the sm&llesl difference in the 
flowers or fruit of all the forms. The South-west Australian specimens (which are perhapa the 8. rtfa, Br.) have more 
slender pedicels, but are otherwise identical; there is sometimes a slight fringe of hairs on the keel.--I?,W^ flat, 
i-1 inch broad, with a stout, prominent, flexuose costa, and thick, coriaceous, obscurely striate wings, that are toothed 
occasionally at the margins. Flowers solitary from the teeth at the margins of the branches. Pedicels variable in 
length, never . w, di ig \ inch, with two bracteaa at the base and two deciduous ones on the middle, glabrous, as is 
the calyx. Flowers \ inch long. Pods flat, \-\ inch long, red-brown. Seeds transversely oblong, red-brown. 
l prostrata (Br. in Hort. Kew. iv. 266) ; parvula, caule brevi lignoso, ramis obscure 
compressis teretibusve prostratis gracilibus appresse puberulis, foliis petiolatis ellipticis oblongis lanceolato- 
ovatis ovato-cordatisve mucronulatis planis glabris v. subtus pilosulis, pedicellis pubesceutibus foliis lon- 
gionbus bnsi bracteolatis, legumine breviter pedicellato linear! latiusculo.— DC. Prodr. ii. 117 J Sims, Bot. 
Mag. t. 1493 ; Sieb. PL Exsicc. 351 . {Gunn, 472 ) 
