154 FLORA OF TASMANIA. [Umbettifera. 
Root annual, sending out many rigid, slender, spreading stems 2-4 inches long, that are sparingly branched, and 
do not root at the joints. Leaves on short petioles, palmately cut to the base into three to five narrow cuneate, 
trifid lobes. Peduncles short in flower, elongating in fruit. Flowers pedicelled. Fruits very small. Mericarps 
rather thicker than usual in the genus, with one prominent, semicircular ridge on each face, between which rib and 
the commissure is a well-defined pit. 
8. Hydrocotyle muscosa (Br. in Rich. Hydr. p. 45. f. 27) ; pusilla, caulibus csespitosis repen- 
tibus, foliis gracile petiolatis palmatisectis, segmentis 3-5 cimeatis trifidis, pedunculis petiolo brevioribus, 
umbellis 3-6-floris, fructibus sessilibus, mericarpiis utrinque 1-costatis, costis nerviformibus. — DC. Prodr. 
iv. 64. {Gunn, 885.) 
Hab. Circular Head, forming large patches in moist places, Gunn. — (Fl. Jan.) 
Distrib. Australia. 
I have seen no Australian specimens of this plant, for the identification of which I depend on the insufficient 
drawing and description of Richard. The foliage is exactly that of H. tripartita, but the whole plant much 
smaller, of a very different habit, having interlacing, creeping, rooting stems and branches, and the fruit is very 
Gen. II. DIDISCUS, £<?. 
Fr iichi& a latere plano-compressissimus, biscutatus, calycis limbo obsoleto coronatus ; mericarpiis evit- 
tatis, jugis filiformibus, dorsalibus et marginalibus ssepe obsoletis, intermedio elevato curvilineo. Petala 
obovata, Integra, obtusa, apice recto. Sti/li elongati, divergentes.— 1 i « . crectce ; foliis 
lobatis multipart tthvc ; umbellis simplicibus compos itisve, involucratis involucellaiisque ; floribus albis 
An Australian genus, of about twenty species, chiefly extratropical, found both in the south-eastern and south- 
western quarters of the continent, no species however being common to both. The structure of the flower and 
fruit is almost the same as that of Hydrocotyle, but the habit is entirely different, more resembling the common 
northern forms of JJmbelliferm than the Australian species usually do.— Erect, annual herbs, simple or branched, 
with simple or compound umbels. Mericarps very much laterally compressed, almost flat, didymous, much con- 
tracted vertically towards the commissure, each with a strong, thickened, curved ridge near the commissure on 
either face, looking like an adherent lobe. Calyx-Xmh obsolete. Petals obovate, concave. Styles slender, diverging. 
(Name from Sis, two, and Buncos, a disc ; in allusion to the form of the mericarps.) 
1. Didiscus pilosus (Benth. in PI. Hiigel. p. 54, in not.); pilosa v. glabrata, caule erecto robusto 
ramoso, foliis radicalibus longe petiolatis palmatisectis, segmentis cuneatis incisis inciso-lobatisve dentatis, 
caulinis lobis angustioribus, umbellis compositis, involucri foliolis linearibus integerrimis inciso-lobatisve, 
involucelli foliolis subsetaceis, floribus parvis, fructibus birsutis.— Book. Ic. PL t. 307. (Gunn, 825.) 
Hab. On the coasts between Circular Head and Woolnorth, in sandy soil, Gunn.— (Fl. Jan.) 
Distrib. South-eastern Australia : Victoria and New South Wales. (« Native Parsnip" of Victoria.) 
A common South Australian coast-plant, but also found by Cunningham and Frazer in the interior of New 
South Wales.— Stems hollow, erect, 1-3 feet high, branched, grooved, pilose below, as are the petioles and leaves 
more or less. Radical leaves palmatisect, segments cuneiform, cut and toothed ; cauline cut into narrower segments. 
Umbels compound, branches often very numerous. Partial umbels of very many rays. Involucre of many simple or 
lobed leaflets ; partial of narrow subulate or lanceolate leaflets, often united at the" base. Flowers small, white (or 
bluish?). 
ills (Nob. in Hook. Ic. PI. t. 304) ; scapigera, acaulis, foliis omnibus radicalibus 
gracile petiolatis ovatis irregulariter 3-5-lobis (primordiahbus integris), lobis obtusis glaberrimis v. parce 
