Lihacee. | FLORA OF TASMANIA. 59 
2. Manthorrheea hastilis (Br. Prodr. 288) ; trunco arboreo ramoso (6-pedali), foliis extra medium 
triquetris, scapo amentum longissimum vix æquante, bracteis perianthiisque imberbibus.—Kuntk, En. iv. 
649. (Gunn, MSS., 690, exempl. nullum.) 
Has. Flinders’ Island, Guna. 
Distris. New South Wales and Victoria. 
I have seen no Flinders’ Island specimens of this plant, which has not yet been found on the mainland of 
Tasmania. According to Gunn, it attains about 6 feet in height, and is very irregularly branched ; it yields a great 
quantity of resin.— Scape varying from 4-6 feet long. 
3. Xanthorrhoea minor (Br. Prodr. 288); acaulis, foliis inferne ancipitibus ultra medium trique- 
tris, junioribus antice concavis, scapis plurimis 1-3-pedalibus, amentis 4-10-uncialibus, bracteis fasciculos 
subtendentibus floribus eguantibus, omnibus perianthiisque imberbibus v. apicibus foliolorum parce pilosis. 
—Kuath, En. iv. 649. (Gunn, 764.) 
Has. Abundant; covering large tracts of ground near Yorktown and east of Georgetown; top of 
Grasstree Hill, near Hobarton.—(Fl. Dec.) (v. v.) 
Disrris. New South Wales and Victoria. 
I refer this with some doubt to Brown’s X. minor, the descriptions being insufficient to identify the plant. It 
is a small stemless species, which, unlike its Tasmanian congeners, sends up numerous flowering scapes from each 
head of leaves. Mr. Gunn further remarks that it appears to flower only occasionally, the flowers being abundant 
in one year, and very few having been found in the same place in the following season. It often covers the ground 
to the exclusion of everything else, and the country appears white from the abundance of its flowering stems. 
Gen. XI. LAXMANNIA, Br. 
Flores capitati, multibracteati. Perianthium 6-phyllum, persistens ; foliolis basi conniventibus, exte- 
rioribus scariosis. Stamina 6; filamentis subulatis, glabris, foliolis perianthii insertis; antheris subrotundis, 
peltatis. Ovarium 3-loculare; stylo filiformi, cum ovario articulato; stigmate simplici; ovulis paucis, am- 
phitropis. Capsula perianthio inclusa, 3-locularis, loculicide 3-valvis. Semina 1-2, peltata, umbilico 
nudo; testa atra, crustacea; embryone dorsali.—Herbe perennes, facie Polycarpese ; radice fibrosa; cau- 
libus drevibus v. elongatis et ramosis, foliatis ; foliis aceroso-filiformibus, confertis; stipulis basi vaginatis, 
vaginis ciliatis ; capitulo pedunculato, multibracteato ; floribus parvis, unibracteatis, albis purpureisve. 
A very remarkable genus, dissimilar in habit from any of the above. About ten species are known, all of 
them exclusively Australian except Z. minor, and most of them inhabitants of the south-west quarter.— Stems 
tufted, short or elongate, wiry and much branched. eaves all radical, or, in the branched species, collected in 
fascicles on the stems, linear, acerose or subulate, with scarious, often ciliated, membranous, silvery, stipulary 
sheaths at the base. Flowers in long scapes, densely capitate, surrounded by imbricating bracts; the bracts and 
outer leaflets of the perianth scarious. Stamens 6, inserted on the perianth; filaments subulate, glabrous; anthers 
small, versatile. Ovary three-celled, with few ovules, a straight slender style jointed on the ovary and simple 
stigma. Capsule three-celled, with few seeds; testa black.— The L. minor is a small, tufted plant, looking some- 
thing like a matted grass, with numerous, slender, branching stems, bearing at intervals tufts of six to eight acerose, 
recurved leaves; these are 4-14 inch long, rigid, terete, acute, surrounded at the base by silvery, ciliate scales. 
Heads of flowers sessile in the tufts of leaves, very minute, with many scarious, ovate-lanceolate, sheathing bracts, 
the outer white and ciliated, often silvery, the inner longer, often purple. Flowers about 4 inch long, variable in 
length, each with a sheathing, appressed bract. Outer segments of perianth ovate-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 
hardly acute, but appearing acuminate from the involute margins, generally pale red-purple; inner leaflets much 
smaller, oblong, membranous. Stamens of outer series inserted at the base of the outer lesflets; of the inner, half- 
