98 H. B. Williamsoa : 



the Colony. Regel described his irom plants grown at Berlin in 

 1865, from seed supplied by Dr. Ausfeldt, from Bendigo, in Victoria. 



Unfortunately no type specimen of the former was preserved at 

 Kew; but the plant found commonly in South Eastern Australia — 

 Bendigo included — has been accepted by Mueller, Bentham and others 

 as tallying sufficiently with Hooker's description and plate. 



Let us consider the differences on which Regel founded his species. 

 He says. " P. pedunculata differs from it (a) in having flowers in 

 twos, which, to begin with, arise at the tips of the branches, and 

 only later are pushed to one side." Hooker s description of P. pedun- 

 culata says: " Flowers in pairs from the extremity of the young 

 iDranches, but they afterwards become lateral from the prolongation 

 cf the branches." P. Ausfeldii has " axUiary flowers." On all speci- 

 mens from Bendigo district I find a number of young branches show- 

 ing flowers two, and sometimes three, together at the ends. As these 

 become lateral from the prolongation of the branchlets, they show as 

 axillary, and a close examination of the pairs shows them to be 

 axillary from the first, but much crowded, so that Hooker's descrip- 

 tion is not incompatible with " axillary flowers." When becoming 

 lateral, they do not remain so close as to be considered twin flowers. 

 May we presume that Hooker appears to have laid stress on the 

 earlier stage, while Regel appears to have ignored it? (b) Regel 

 says, quoting from Hooker, " Flower-stalks one inch or more." We 

 have specimens from Port Lincoln with peduncles about one inch 

 long, and except for rather broader leaves, tallying in every other 

 respect with the Bendigo specimens. I scarcely think that a species 

 should be founded on that difference only. (c) "Zig-zag lower 

 branches." Just a minor difference of habit. (d) " Only pointed 

 leaves." Hooker's description omits any reference to the points on 

 the leaves. His plate shows them only pointed, but the omission 

 in his description does not mean that the "sharp thorny tip" men- 

 tioned in Regel's description was not present. (e) " Not united 

 stipules." Hooker's description says: "two brown membranous sti- 

 pules which stand upright, and are appressed to the stem." That 

 does not mean that they are not partly united when at or near 

 the ends of young branches, among crowded leaves. In the Bendigo 

 specimens they certainly are so, but I flnd pairs of broad, membranous 

 stipules showing exactly as in the Bot. Mag. plate. Lower down, I 

 find stipules quite disunited. It should be remembered that right 

 through the genus examples may occur where, on the same specimen, 

 within a range of a few inches, stipules are: "broad, reddish, scar- 

 ious, appressed and united," and " narrow, recurved, blackish and 

 quite disunited." (f) " Erect calyx lobes." Hooker's description does 

 not say so, although the plate shows some lobes scarcely spreading. 

 I am of opinion that the plate drawn in 1828 represents, rather 

 incorrectly, the plant grown at Kew from seeds from the form ac- 

 cepted by Bentham and Mueller as pedunculata, growing from Port 

 Jackson to Spencer Gulf, and that Regel described his species from 

 a plant grown from the same seeds, i.e., that both lots of seeds 

 "vere from the same species. Dr. Stapf, of Kew, in a report to the 



