THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST 



two qualities just mentioned, but in ti\e ca&e of Orchids there are 

 so many features of interest, that each individual, we may almost 

 say, may admii'e them for a different reason." The group Orchi- 

 dacea? seems to include within its limit all tlie attributes which make 

 fiowers attractive. Beauty of form and colour, quaintness of shape, 

 now large now small, now mimicking in form a butteiily, in another 

 species resembling a bird, in a third a reptile, in another presenting 

 the aspect of some grotesque maslv, flowering in winter, flowering 

 in summer, growing in the ground, living on trees, thriving high up 

 on the mountain side, flourishing in the moist hot woods of Java, 

 abundant on English downs, to be found alike in the old liemisphere 

 and in the new world, in the far north and in the extreme south, 



(To be continued.) 



CONrElBUTIONS TO THE PHYTOGRAPHY OP 

 AUSTRALIA, 



By Baeon Fked. ton Mueldeh. K.C.M.a., M D , Ph. D , F.R S. 



PodopeiaJinn OrmoJidi. — In the June number of the Blelbourne 

 Chemist, iH'^z, two genera of leguminous plants were defined, to 

 one of which the name Podopetalum was given ; but the record 

 had to be limited to characteristics of leaves and flowers only, as 

 fruits were not obtained by the discoverer, Mr. Persieh, who 

 met this stately plant in forests near the Endeavour-river. As 

 a species this plant remained unnamed in the periodical above 

 quoted ; but in the " Systematic Census of Australian Plants," 

 issued at the end of 1882, p. 42, it appeared as Podopetalum 

 Ormondi, in dedication to the honorable Francis Ormond, M.L.C., 

 whose almost boundless munificence for raising ecclesiastic and 

 •educational institutions in this colony, was meriting a perma- 

 ]ient token of appreciation also in botanic science. When the 

 genus Podopetalum was first rendered descriptively known, its 

 varied affinities to Castanospermum, Sophora and Ormosia 

 were pointed out, as well as the difference, which separate it 

 from these genera, so far as floral organisation is concerned; but 

 JIG final systematic place could be assigned to the genus, so long 

 as the fruit remained unknown. The latter has recently been 

 obtained, and from the following description it will be observed, 

 that the carpologic characteristics are almost those of Ormosia. 



Pod on a stipe of rather more than half an inch length, some- 

 what comjDressed; valves coriaceous, tardily seceding, hardening 

 through exsiccation, reaching a width of three-quarter inch 

 more or less contracted between the s:^eds, dorsally undulating 



