1085 



ONTRSBUTÎOiMS 



TO OUR 



Knowledge of Australian Amarantacese 



Leo F AHM VU 



A profusion of rnaterial of this order received within récent years at 

 Kew from Australia has induced rne to work up the two endémie 

 gênera, Trichinium and Ptilotus, together with the genus Oomphrena. 



The collection first examined by nie was made by Dr. E. Clement 

 about the year 1897 in the North West Division of Western Australia 

 a tropical région which is still little known botanically and which has 

 proved ail the more interesting in that it appears to be the head- 

 quarters of the Australian Amaranths. In naming this collection, I 

 freely consulted the gênerai collection of the Kew Herbarium, which, as 

 raay be supposed, is very rieh in Bentham's and Mueller's types. Besides 

 Dr. Clement's plants, there hâve been received at Kew occasional con- 

 tributions from Mr. W. A. Michell, an engineer residing at Mons Cupri, 

 Whim Creek, also in the North West Division. 



I propose to deal in the first place with certain structural peculiari- 

 ties of the fiowers of Trichinium and Ptilotus, with a view to a better 

 définition of those gênera, and to attach a list of the species which, in 

 conséquence of this revised définition, will hâve to be transferred, and 

 in the second place to give descriptions of new species. 



Bentham states, in the Flora Australiensis, that « Ptilotus only differs 

 from some of the smaller fiowered Trichinia, in the absence of the 

 dorsal hairs which, in Trichinium, give the laminse of the perianth- 

 segments a plumose appearance ». While adopting Bentham's view as 

 to the limits of the two gênera, this short Statement of the case is, I 

 think, some what misleading. The différence between them is rather in 

 the disposition of the perianth hairs, when présent in Ptilotus, (they 

 are always présent in Trichinium). The différences, however, will be 

 better understood by stating the characters of each more fully. 



In Trichinium, which contains 55 species, the hairs are always 

 straight and arise from the whole length of the segment except the tip, 

 which they also never exceed. In Ptilotus, comprising 15 species, the 

 upper half of the perianth is always glabrous; the lower is either 



