MY RT A CE M. 



323 



Fig. 304. Bud (f). 



Fig. 305. Long. sect, of 

 bud. 



ami enlarged at the summit, which supports the two adnate cells of 

 an introrse anther dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts. The ovary- 

 is unilocular, surmounted 

 by a subulate style some- 

 what enlarged at its stig- 

 matiferous summit, which 

 is often surrounded by long 

 unequal and rigid hairs. 

 From the lower part of the 

 ovarian cell rises, some- 

 times along one of the par- 

 titions, 1 an eccentric pla- 

 centa, of variable length, 

 bearing from two to ten 

 ascending ovules in two 

 parallel series with micro- 



pyle directed downwards and outwards. The fruit, surmounted by 

 a persistent calyx, is dry, indéhiscent and contains one or a few 

 seeds, Chamœlaucium comprises shrubs of south-western Australia, 

 having ordinarily the aspect of a Heath, with opposite, rarely alter- 

 nate, leaves, small and entire, without stipules, oftener odorous. 

 The flowers are solitary in the axils of the leaves or of the bracts, 

 which replace them at the summit of the branches in such a manner 

 that the entire inflorescence resembles a spike or terminal capitule. 

 Each flower, sessile or supported by a short pedicel, is accompanied 

 by two large and sinuous lateral bracteoles, at first enveloping the 

 bud. About ten species have been described. 3 



Some species of Darwinia (fig. 306-308) differ from Chamœlaucium 

 only in the form of their anthers ; the latter being nearly globular, 

 and opening near their organic summit, that is above and without, 

 by two very short longitudinal clefts, or two pores more or less 

 confluent within. The flowers are in terminal capitules and situated 

 in the axil of narrow or often wide and coloured bracts, forming a 

 petaloid involucre (fig. 306). The sepals are mutichous, sometimes 

 glandular at the summit. These plants, like all of the series, are 



i It would, in this case, be the anterior. tyltis). — Meibsn. Jmrii. Linn. Soe. i. 44.— 



-' Shiau. PL Preias. i. 97. — F. Muell. Fragm. Benih. Fl. Austral, iii. 35.— Walp. Rep. ii. 

 iv. 62.— Tuacz. Bull. Mosc. (1849) ii. 17 (Gene- 154 ; v. 729. 



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