44 Some hitherto unknown Australian Plants. 



Melaleuca symphyocarpa. 



(Sect. Asteromyrtus.) 



Branchlets almost terete and petioles slightly downy; 

 leaves alternate, shining, oblong-lanceolate, flat, blnnt, 

 5-9 nerved, thinly veined, tapering into a broad but very 

 short petiole ; flowers in free axillary and lateral heads ; 

 lobes of the calyx deciduous, nearly semiorbicular ; pha- 

 langes penicillate polyandrous, orange, with a long and 

 thin claw; capsules boney, perfectly united in a globose 

 head, three-celled; valves short-exserted; seeds wingless. 



On the sandy or gravelly banks of the Roper, Limmen 

 Bight and Macarthur rivers, also on sometimes inundated 

 localities of the neighbouring plains. 



A large, very handsome bush, sometimes attaining the 

 size of a small tree. Bark fissured, black, not lamellar. Leaves 

 bright green, generally \\-2\ inches long and 6-9 lines broad. 

 Flowers varying from 8 to 15 in each head. Tube of the 

 calyx already in early age connate, yellowish or red, more or 

 less velvety ; lobes green. Bracteoles downy. Petals spa- 

 thulate- orbicular, 1^ line long, glabrous, yellowish, half sur- 

 passing in length the calyx-lobes. Columns of the stamens 

 3-6 lines long, with the free portions of the filaments, which 

 are 2-3 lines long and fasciculately but not flatly arranged, 

 forming exactly a brush, at last deciduous. Anthers about 

 J line long, purplish red, after foecundation black, didymous, 

 fixed with their back, terminating in a small gland. Pollen 

 almost free of color. Style smooth, orange or yellow, hardly 

 as long as the stamens. Stigma green, peltate. Pruit 

 heads measuring about half an inch, beautifully areolate by 

 the vertex of the capsules. Seeds brown, 1 line long, clavate- 

 filiform, truncate. 



There exists no character by which Schauer's genus Aste- 

 romyrtus can be separated from Melaleuca. The same in- 

 tenability of generic distinction is manifest between Symphy- 

 omyrtus and Eucalyptus, and the limits of the genera Lepto- 

 spermum and Fabricia are likewise so far infringed, that I do 

 not hesitate to unite them respectively. 



M. globifera agrees in its brief specific characteristics, 

 offered by R. Brown, with Mel. symphyocarpa, but the former 

 is restricted to the south coast ; nor does it fully accord with 

 the generic note promulgated by the immortal R. Brown, in 

 Aiton's Hort., Kew, iv., 410. 



