53 



or less deeply cleft, each segment 2 to 3 lines long, 

 lanceolate, acute ; petiole slender, about 4 lines long, with a 

 short broad sheathing base, clothed with white silky hairs. 

 Peduncle terminal, from very short to lfin. long, slender, 

 hairy. Umbel about 2 lines diameter ; bracts about 6, very 

 shortly united. Flowers about 5, calyx-limb apparently 

 always 4-lobed and shortly tubular above the ovary. Petals 

 none. Stamens apparently always 2. 



Mount Hamilton, Mount Eeid, Mount Tyndall, Hartz Mt. 



Haloragis heterophylla, Brogn. This plant appears to have 

 escaped addition to our census, not so much from its rarity 

 than from its likeness to its relatives. Its divided leaves 

 has often placed it with H. ceratophylla, Endl. It differs in 

 the leaf, however, from that species in these organs being 

 opposite, and in the flower and fruit it is closely allied to 

 H. tetragyna, P. Br. 



I have specimens gathered near Evandale some years ago 

 by Aug. Simson, and about two years ago by Win. Fitzgerald 

 near Campbell Town. It is also very common on the fiats 

 and banks of the Jordan above Bridge water. 



The genus Vallisneria is o;;e that has always found great 

 favour in the eyes of botanical students from the peculiarity 

 of its flowers. The pistillate flower is solitary, and is de- 

 veloped on a long peduncle that is spirally coiled when young, 

 but at maturity uncoils to allow the stigmatic lobes to be 

 exposed at the surface of the water. The male flowers are 

 extremely minute and numerous, and are formed on a rhachis 

 within a spathe in the leaf-axils. When the buds are about 

 ripe they escape from the spathe, rise to the surface of the 

 water and there open. They float down the stream in great 

 numbers, and generally some of them have the good fortune 

 to meet the object of their being, the pistillate flowers. 

 Vallisneria is distributed throughout the tropical and warm 

 temperate portions of both hemispheres, and is generally con- 

 sidered to contain but one species, though an effort has 

 occasionally been made to separate the Australian form as a 

 distinct species. It would appear as though our Tasmanian 

 plant at least had never received the fair treatment of being 

 examined in the living condition, for the only descriptions I am 

 aware of that passes to represent it does not accord with it. 

 I am not disposed to take the responsibility of giving our 

 plant a separate name, but for the sake of convenience and to 

 mark its distinctness I will in describing it mark it as a 

 variety. 



Vallisneria spiralis, var. procera. Plant submerged, stolo- 

 niferous. Leaves 1 to 3 feet long, lin. wide, the margin 

 thick obtuse, and often serrulate towards the apex. Male 



