179 



Queensland. — Roxburgh Downs (F. M.Bailey); Georgina 

 River (E. W. Bick) ; Diamantina River (F. M. Bailey); 

 Monkira Station, Diamantina River (S. L. Debney) ; ''South- 

 western Queensland" (T. Little) ; between Stokes Range and 

 Cooper Creek (Dr. Wheeler). 



This is the species accepted as F. paueiflora, DC, var. 

 serpyllifolia, Benth., in the National Herbarium of New 

 South Wales. In the Queensland Herbarium it is sometimes 

 labelled ''var. serpyllifolia" and sometimes "var. thymoides." 

 The only specimen in Australia of the type, collected by 

 Sir Thomas Mitchell on the Nive River, Queensland, and 

 described by Lindley in 1848, appears to be in the National 

 Herbarium of New South Wales. Mr. J. H. Maiden writes : 

 — "Our specimen of the type is merely a fragment glued 

 down on a sheet of paper, and has only about a couple of 

 flowers, which seem to be immature. Mr. Cheel very care- 

 fully compared it with the specimen I sent you from the 

 Diamantina River, Queensland, a locality in the same general 

 lie of country as that where the type was originally collected." 

 This is the specimen collected by the late Mr. F. M. Bailey 

 and mentioned above. It belongs to the ovate-leaved, hispid 

 form common in Queensland and in our Far North, and cer- 

 tainly to the section Basigonia. The Queensland specimens 

 agree very well with Lindley's short original description 

 (Mitchell, Exped. Trop. Aust., 305) : — "Tomentosa hispida, 

 foliis oblongis planis longe ciliatis, floribus solitariis sub- 

 eapitulatis pentameris, calycibus patentim hispidis." 



The species here dealt with is not the same as that 

 described and figured by Dr. Ostenfeld (I.e., 51, fig. 15) as 

 F. serpyllifolia. The description and figure are there based 

 on a Western Australian specimen presented by Baron von 

 Mueller to the Berlin Herbarium and named "F. serpylli- 

 folia'" by W. J. Bray in Engler, Bot. Jahrb., xxiv. (not 

 accessible here). It has (according to Ostenfeld) the ovary of 

 F. paueiflora and leaves glabrous on both surfaces. It is true 

 that Bentham made F . serpyllifolia a variety of F . paueiflora 

 (Fl. Aust., i., 152), but it is noteworthy that he does not 

 mention the number of ovules, although he does so in the 

 case of F. paueiflora and of var. thymoides. The plant which 

 I have here described must (at least in the form with rolled 

 leaves) be very close to, if not identical with, F. interioris, 

 Ostenfeld, I.e., 53, fig. 17. 



Var. eremophila, nov. var. Variat omnibus foliis 

 lineari-subcylindricis, ramis foliis calycibusque pilis brevissimis 

 obtusis vestitis et plus minus crustd alba tectis, nervo 

 mediano infra manifestiore, staminibus 5-6, styli ramis et 

 placentis 2-8. 



