363 



2. Pachycornia, Hook.f. 



Branches stout ; articles long-lobed ; embryo almost 



annular 1. P. robusta 



Branches slender; articles short-lobed : embryo 



almost straight 2. P. tenuis 



1. P. robusta, (F. v. M.) Hook. f. in Benth. et Hook, 

 Gen. pi. iii., 65, aim. 1883. (Plate xxxvi.) A low shrub 

 with robust branches; sterile and fertile articles with 2 

 prominent, acute, spreading lobes, distinctly keeled, about 

 10 mm. broad at summit, the sterile ones 10-20 mm. long, the 

 fertile ones only about 5 mm. long; spikes short and thick 

 (10-20 mm. long), usually terminating short, opposite 

 branches, with 4-6 articles ; flowers in 3's, the central bisexual, 

 the 2 lateral male ; perianth membranous, irregularly 2-4 lobed 

 at summit, where it is slightly contracted ; pericarp soon 

 hardening and becoming adherent to the enlarged bony axis 

 of the spike ; seed often solitary in the article, orbicular- 

 reniform, slightly compressed, more or less completely inverted ; 

 seedcoat one, subchartaceous, reticulate; albumen central, 

 because the embryo is almost annular ; cotyledons and radicle 

 both curved upwards, the former rather longer than the 

 radicle. 



S. Australia. Chowilla, River Murrav (Jan., 1884, in 

 Tate Herb.); Renmark (J.M. B., October," 1915). 



Victoria. Mildura (H. B. Williamson). 



N.S. Wales. Lake Victoria (S. A. White, Sept., 1917). 



N. Territory. Alice Creek (Horn Expedition, in Tate 

 Herb.) 



2. P. tenuis, (Benth.) combin. nov. (Tab. xxxvi.) 

 Fruiticulus erectus, ramis ramulisque tenuibus, sterilibus 

 articulis 5-15 mm. longis 2-3 mm. crassis, lobis late scarioso- 

 marginatis obtusis vel acuminatis, spicis 8-16 mm. longis 

 ramulos oppositos terminantibus, fertilibus articulis 4-6, 

 fructiferis subglobosis 4-5 mm. longis, noribus ternis artieulo 

 inferiore occultis, centrali bisexuali, duobus lateralibus 

 masculis, perianthio membranaceo, pericarpio primum corneo 

 deinde cum spicae rhachi aucta et ossea conjuncto, semine 

 subcylindrico 4 mm. longo basin versus attenuate in cavo 

 rhacheos induratae recondito (saepius per quadrantem 

 ambitus cavi ita se circumagente ut unum semen alteri non 

 tergo sed latere adjaceat), integumento uno membranaceo laevi 

 albido, albumine laterali. embryone levissime curvo, cotyle- 

 donibus radiculae aequilongis. — Salicomia tenuis, Benth. Fl. 

 Aust., v., 204 (1870) ex parte (quantum ad specimina quae 

 auctor mascula existimavit) ; S. Donaldsoni, Ewart et White 

 in Journ. Roy. Soc. N.S. Wales, xlii., 194, t. 33 (1908). 



