38 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW AUSTRALIAN PLANTS, WITH 

 OCCASIONAL OTHER ANNOTATIONS, 



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



POLYGALA TEPPERI. 



Herbaceous, erect or ascending, much beset with very short 

 appressed hairlets ; leaves rather short, narrow linear, acute ; 

 flowers small, axillary or lateral, solitary or in some instances 

 two together; pedicels very short, so also the peduncle if 

 present; bract and bracteoles quite minute, persistent; outer sepals 

 ovate-lanceolar, disconnected ; inner sepals greenish, lanceolar, 

 slightly falcate, their venules hardly perceptible ; middle lobe of 

 anterior petal conspicuously fringed, lateral petals pale, upwards 

 dilated and nearly truncate ; free part of filaments of most of the 

 stamens very short ; ripe fruit fully as long as the lateral sepals, 

 acutely bilobed ; seeds strophiolate, bearing a whitish silk-like 

 vestiture. 



Roebuck-Bay ; W. Tepper. 



Allied to P. clwiensis, differing from the narrow form of that 

 species already in often solitary flowers and in longer not rounded 

 fruit-lobes. 



Polygala stenoclada, in its typical state, has been sent from Port 

 Darwin by Mr. M. Holtze ; the leaves attain two inches in length, 

 the racemes inclusive of the peduncle four inches, the pedicels 

 3^-inch ; the anterior petal is towards the summit blue, and is 

 cleft into only few lobes, which are thickish ; the free part of the 

 filaments is conspicuously longer than the anthers ; the fruit has 

 rounded-blunt lobes and no marginal expansion. The broad- 

 leaved plant, referred to P. stenoclada as a variety by Bentham, 

 has the pedicels shorter, the anterior petal more fringed and 

 pink, and the fruit broader ; this plant seems also always dwarfer 

 and less slender, while the leaves are shorter. It approaches 

 P. chinensis, but the racemes are elongated. It is now known 

 also from the Don-River (Bird), the Elliot- the Cape- and the 

 Burdekin-River (Bowman), the Kimberley-District (Nyulasy). 



Polygala rhinanthoides occurs also at Port Darwin (Holtze), 

 Thursday-Island (Rev. James Chalmers). Leaves may be seen 

 2^/2 inches long; the racemes contain in some instances as 

 many as 30 flowers ; the inner sepals occur not seldom in a 

 marked way quilateral and acuminate. The plant is very closely 

 related to P. persicarifolia. 



Polygala arvensis is now known southward as far as the Paroo 

 (Mrs. Spencer). Polygala leptalea and Salomonia oblongifolia were 

 found also at Port Darwin by Mr. Holtze. 



Helipterum fitzgibboni. 



Annual, rather dwarf, beset with very short glandule-bearing 

 hairlets ; leaves broad-linear, darkish-green, somewhat clasping at 



