242 FLORA OF TASMANIA. [Epacridece. 
The common form of Gaultheria antipoda is a bushy shrub, 3-5 feet high, common on clay-hills in New Zea- 
land, where it is an extremely variable plant. In the mountainous districts of the same archipelago it becomes 
dwarfed, and final ins, it is reduced to a slender, prostr ad it is this form 
alone that occurs in Tasmania. It thus affords a curious instance of the difficulty botanists often have in discover- 
ing what are species and what only varieties ; for this was described by me as a different species before the moun- 
tain variety of the New Zealand G. antipoda was known ; and no one, without a full suite of intermediate forms, 
could question its distinctness, nor indeed suspect it. Supposing New Zealand to be exposed to such a change 
of climate as to obliterate its mountain vegetation, the links would be lost between the Tasmanian and the common 
New Zealand states of G. antipoda. — A small, creeping, woody-stemmed shrub, with slender, prostrate, wiry 
branches ; the branchlets pubescent, and covered with appressed bristles. Leaves alternate, small, -i-i inch long, 
shortly petioled, elliptical or obovate-oblong, blunt, crenate, the veins reticulate, glabrous on both surfaces, with 
a few bristles at the crenatures. Flowers axillary, solitary, shortly pedicelled. Fruit baccate, very fleshy, large 
for the size of the plant, Hr inch across.— Plate LXIII. A. Pig. 1, leaf; 2, young fruit :— both magnified. 
Gen. II. PERNETTYA, Gaud. 
Calyx 5-partitus, persistens. Corolla ovata v. globosa, ore 5-dentato. Stamina 10, libera, in clusa; 
iilamentis supra basin incrassatis ; antherarum loculis muticis bi-aristatisve. Ovarium depresso-globosum ; 
glandulis hypogynis 10, lobatis. Stylus brevis; stigmate sub-5-lobo. Bacca 5-locularis, loculis poly- 
spermis. — Fraticuli glabri v. setosi, erecti v. procumbentes ; foliis alternis, persistentibus, coriaceis ; floribus 
solitaries raeem <ruis, albis. 
This is almost exclusively a South American genus, the Tasmanian species being the only exception hitherto 
discovered, and that differs from the majority of its congeners in the anthers not having awns at the back, the 
South American P.furens alone presenting the same character. The Tasmanian species is a very small, creep- 
ing, woody, much branched, perfectly glabrous shrub.— Branches 2-3 inches long, slender, ascending. Leaves |~| 
inch long, shortly petioled, spreading, elliptic-lanceolate, acute, very coriaceous indeed, obscurely serrate, shining. 
Peduncles solitary, axillary, shorter than the leaves, bracteate at the base. Ca^-lobcs coriaceous, ovate, subacute. 
Corolla small, white, ovate or nearly globose ; mouth five-toothed. Antliers small, oblong, bursting by large pores. 
Ovary surrounded with a five-lobed disc, five-celled. Ovules many, on axillary placenta?. Berry about the size of a 
pea, yellow or red or cream-coloured. (Named in honour of Bon Pernetty, historiographer of Bougainville's Voyage 
to South America ; and the name Perandra from injpos, hornless, and avrjp.) 
1. Pernettya (Perandra) Tasmanica (Hook. fil. in Lond. Journ. Bot. vi. 268) ; humilis, depressa, 
divancatim ramosa, ramulis puberulis, foliis patulis elliptico-lanceolatis acutis integerrimis v. obscure serru- 
latis, pedicellis axillaribus basi 3-4-bracteolatis, antheris muticis, ovario disco 5-lobo cincto. {Gunn, 708.) 
(Tab. LXXIII. B.) 
Hab. On all the mountains, forming large green cushions, especially in a granite soil, Backhouse, 
Gunn, etc.— (EL Jan.) 
Plate LXXIII. B. Pig. 1, leaf; 2, flower; 3, the same, laid open; 4, stamen; 5, calyx and ovary; 6, fruit: 
— all magnified. 
Nat. Ord. XLIX. EPACRIDE.E. 
One of the most extensive and peculiar Natural Orders in Australia, though differing so little from 
Ericece as to be scarcely distinguishable, except by the unilocular anthers. When first defined (in Brown's 
Prodromus), the Epacridece were supposed to be confined to Australia and Polynesia; but they have since 
been found to extend over the Malayan Archipelago into the peninsula of that name, and the Philippine 
