■92 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW AUSTRALIAN PLANTS 5 

 By Baron von Mueller, K.C.M.G., M. & Ph.D., F.R.S. 



KOCHIA SPONGIOCARPA. 



Erect ; branchlets wtitisli-velvetdowny ; leaves semicylindrie- 

 linear, rather long, somewhat pointed, glabrous ; style enclosed ; 

 stigmas generally two ; fruit-bearing calyx quite spongy, 

 almost semiglobular, slightly wrinkled, glabrous, the flat summit 

 expanding into a narrow undivided membrane, the transverse veins 

 of it very subtle. 



Near Caiwarro ; Mrs. J. Cotter. Also near the Darling-River. 



Leaves scattered, -i-l inch long, comparatively narrow. Stigmas 

 •short, sometimes bifid. Fruiting calyces attaining a breadth of 

 nearly half an inch, pale-brownish, soft and tumid, blunt at the 

 base, without decurrent angles, but somewhat distorted by exsicca- 

 tion or even folded ; cavity rather ample, not reaching to the base 

 of the calyx ; fruit more or less depressed ; embryo normal. 



This species differs from K. triptera in the spongy texture of the 

 fruit-calyces and in the absence of prominent lateral angles of the 

 calyx ; the only other congener with spongy fruit-calyces, namely 

 K, decaptera, has its horizontal expanding membrane lobed, and. 

 its calyx-tube lined by 5 longitudinal thin plates. 



KoCHIA LOBOSTOMA. 



Erect ; leaves very short, crowded or tufty-disposed, rather 

 flat, mostly ovate-lanceolar, as well as the branchlets velvet- 

 downy ; stigmas generally two, shorter than the style ; fruit- 

 bearing calyx black-brown, slightly hairy, expanding around 

 the depressed base into a broad undivided membrane, the five 

 lobes of the orifice large, semiorbicular or semiovate, nearly as long 

 as the surrounding membrane. 



Between the Lachlan-and Darling-River ; J. Bruckner. 



Leaves mostly ^-^ inch long, hardly acute. Fruiting calyces 

 nearly half an inch broad, when well developed ; the lobes of the 

 orifice not quite membranous. Fruit much depressed. 



The flattened not hardening fruit-calyx with ample orificial 

 lobes distinguishes this plant from all forms of K. villosa. 



The two Australian species, published in 1810 by R. Brown, 

 became inclusive of the present two augmented gradually parti- 

 cularly in later years to 23, and the saltbush-country of the 

 far interior may furnish still other additions also to this genus, 

 which evidently attains in Australia its greatest numerical 

 development. They are among the most important of our pasture- 

 plants, and should even be methodically redisseminated at the 

 places of their native growth. 



