Some hitherto unknown Australian Plants. 45 



Melaleuca minutifolia. 



Glabrous ; branchlets numerous, generally opposite, ex- 

 tremely slender ; leaves very small, opposite, sessile, 

 ovate or lanceolate, acuminate, towards the base in- 

 curved, crowded, slightly spreading, deciduous ; capsules 

 spicate along the branches, globose-ovate, truncate or in 

 age almost hemispherical, three-celled; seeds wingless. 

 In barren localities of North Western Australia. 



A tab 1 , shrub. Leaves about f-H lines long, in drying re- 

 markably deciduous. Branchlets at the insertion of each 

 pair gradually contracted, with rather conspicuous cicatrices. 



It differs from Melaleuca tamariscina, its nearest congener, 

 as follows : the arrangement of the leaves is not a spiral one, 

 and after their fall the branchlets do not assume in conse- 

 quence that truly screwlike appearance which characterizes 

 Melaleuca tamariscina, although they are also singularly 

 grooved and often more slender still ; the leaves are neither 

 closely appressed, nor are any of them blunt and subcordate, 

 nor is the fruit-rachis velvet-downy. I have not yet seen ripe 

 fruit of M. tamariscina, nor the flowers of either species, 

 from which, probably, many other marks of discrimination 

 may be derived. 



CUCTJRBITACE^E. 



Cucumis jucunda. 

 Leaves cordate, undivided, somewhat angular, with minute 

 and remote teeth ; petioles shorter than the leaves, or at 

 least of equal length with them ; tendrils simple, their 

 lower portion hispidulous; lobes of the calyx filiform- 

 linear; ovary velvety; fruit small, ovate, powdery-downy, 

 at least three times shorter than the peduncle; seeds 

 numerous, their length that of the third or fourth part 

 of the fruit diameter ; funicle very short. 



In Arnhem's Land and on the Gulf of Carpentaria, parti- 

 cularly on the banks of rivers, also in eastern tropical Austra- 

 lia, and in Central Australia observed with certainty as far 

 south as Cooper's River. 



Stems long, trailing or climbing, as well as the branches, 

 with 5 blunt angles. Petioles, peduncles, stems and branches 

 hispid with short, spreading bristles. Leafstalks angular, 

 cylindrical, with a superficial furrow. Leaves 1^-4 inches 

 long and broad, above hispidulous-scabrous, beneath along 



