9^ Xyi. CAEYOPHYLLE^. [PolycarpcBd. 



often purple. Petals united with the stamens in a tube of about 1 line, their free 

 part shorter and entire, sometimes very short, the filaments about the same 

 length. Ovary sessile, with a subulate style. Capsule oblong, tapering at the 

 top, with few seeds. 



Hab.: North -western parts of the colony. 



Var. gracilis. More slender. Sepals about IJ line long. Petals rather broad, notched. 



5. P. corymbosa (corymbose). Lam. Illustr. n. 2798 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. i. 

 166. Minutely pubescent or rarely almost glabrous, with erect, rather slender, 

 but stiff branches, ^ to 1 or even IJft. high. Leaves from narrow-linear to 

 almost subulate, rarely linear-lanceolate, flat or with revolute margins, the longer 

 ones -J- to lin., with small ones clustered in their axils, the upper ones much 

 smaller and often few and distant. Stipules tapering to a fine point. Flowers 

 numerous, in dense terminal corymbose cymes, sometimes all forming one dense 

 mass on the top of an otherwise simple stem, sometimes the cymes numerous and 

 loosely paniculate. Floral leaves all reduced to scarious bracts. Sepals about 1^ 

 line long, white and scarious, without any prominent midrib, but tapering to a 

 fine point. Petals quite free, not |- line long, broadly ovate, very obtuse and 

 rather firm. Stamens often shorter. Style very short. Capsule ovoid or oblong, 

 much shorter than the sepals. — DC. Prod. iii. 374 ; Wight. Ic. Pi. Ind. Or. 

 t. 712. 



Hab.: Port Curtis. 



The species is common in tropical Asia and Africa and is found also in Brazil and Guiana. 



6. P. breviflora (flowers short), F. v. M. in Fu'p. Babb. Flr.p. 9 ; Benth. Fl. 

 Austr. i. 156. Glabrous or pubescent, and very nearly allied to P. corymbosa, 

 but more slender and divaricately branched, and at once known by its very much 

 smaller flowers. Sepals scarcely 1 line long, broader and less acuminate than in 

 P. corymbosa, petals much narrower, not so obtuse and usually denticulate at the 

 top ; stamens much more perigynous ; capsule longer in proportion, occasionally 

 even exceeding the sepals. 



Hab.: Various localities throughout the colony. 



Order XVII. PORTULACE^. 



Flowers regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals fewer than petals, usually 2, free or 

 rarely adnate to the ovary at the base, usually broad, imbricate in the bud. 

 Petals 4 or 5, rarely more, hypogynous or rarely perigynous, imbricate in the 

 bud. Stamens inserted with the petals and often adheiing to their base, of the 

 same number or fewer and opposite to them or indefinite ; anthers 2-celled. 

 Ovary free or rarely half-inferior, 1-celled. Style more or less deeply divided 

 into 3 or rarely 2 or more than 3 branches, stigmatic along the inner side. 

 Ovules 2 or more, amphitropous, with an inferior micropyle, attached to funicles 

 erect from the base of the cayity, and free or united in a central column, or in as 

 many clusters as style-branches. Seeds several or solitary by abortion, usually 

 more or less reniform, with a lateral hilum ; testa crustaceous, sometimes with a 

 caruncle at the hilum. Embryo more or less curved round the mealy albumen, 

 or rarely nearly straight with very little albumen. — Herbs, rarely shrubby at the 

 base, usually glabrous and succulent or clothed with long hairs. Leaves alternate 

 or opposite, entire. Stipules scarious or split into hairs or none. Flowers 

 terminal and solitary, or in racemes, cymes or panicles, or rarely axillary. Petals 

 usually very fugacious or withering in a mass. 



A small Order, chiefly American, with a few species dispersed over other parts of the world, 

 especially S. Africa and Australia. The Queensland genera are none of them endemic, 1 of them 

 being chiefly American. Of the other two, 1 is generally distributed over the globe, the 



