98 XVII. PORTULAOEiB. [CalamMnia. 



Bracts very small, the upper ones often scarious. Sepals acute, about 1 line long 

 in flower, nearly 1^ when in fruit. Petals about as long, often persistent a long 

 time after flowering, withered into a small calyptra on the top of the young fruit. 

 Stamens about 5, with slender, free filaments ; anthers ovate. Style very short, 

 with 3 very short, oblong, stigmatic branches. Capsule rather longer than the 

 calyx, 3-valved. Seeds numerous, small, very smooth and shining. — Hook. f. 

 Fl. Tasm. i. 143 ; Claytonia ealyptrata, F. v. M. Fragm. iii. 89. 

 Hab.: Darling Downs, &c. 



8. C. pumila (dwarfish), F. r. M. Fragm. x. 68. A small, tufted, glabrous 

 plant, with a thick succulent root. Leaves radical or nearly so, oblong or almost 

 ovate, 3 to 4 lines long, but narrowed into a petiole twice that length. Eaeemes 



1 to 4-flowered. Bracts small, scarious. Pedicels never very divergent. Sepals 

 persistent, ovate or cordate-orbiculate. Petals 5, ovate. Stamens very few.' 

 Capsule almost globose, 3-valved, many-seeded. Seeds very minute, smooth, 

 almost ovate, brown, shining. — C. ealyptrata, var. pumila, in Flora Austr. i. 175. 



Hab.: Balonne Biver. 



9. C. spergularina (Spergularia-like), F. v. M. Fragm. i. 175 ; Benth. Fl. 

 Austr. i. 176. A small annual, with a tuft of linear-terete leaves under lin. long. 

 Stems slender, decumbent, slightly branched, 2 to 4in. long or scarcely more. 

 Leaves few, small, linear-terete. Flowers pink, very small, in a rather rigid 

 often flexuose raceme on pedicels of 1 to 8 lines. Bracts very minute and 

 scarious. Sepals acute, a little more than 1 line long in flower, IJ line when in 

 fruit. Petals 6, not twice as long as the calyx. Stamens about 15 ; anthers 

 oblong, the cells adhering in the centre only. Style divided to the base into 3 

 linear stigmatic branches. Capsule small, the valves remaining coherent at the 

 top, separating at the base, and falling off together. Seeds small, smooth, and 

 shining. 



Hab.: Cape York, Torres Straits, and Gulf of Carpentaria. 



10. C. ptychosperma (referring to plait-like marking of seeds), F. v. M. 

 Fragm. x. 70. Plant small, glabrous. Leaves, the radical ones crowded, 1 to 

 l-J-in. long and 1 line thick, acute ; stem ones shorter. Racemes few-flowered. 

 Bracts scarious, 1 to IJ line long. Sepals persistent, roundly-ovate, acute, about 



2 lines long. The dying petals forming a "eonioal calyptra about 2 lines long. 

 Stamens not numerous. Capsule 3 lines long, cylindric- conical. Seeds \ line, 

 neither rough nor reticulate but longitudinally striate. 



Hab.: Bowen Downs. 



11. C. pogonophora (beard-bearing), F. v. M. Fragm. x. 69. A small 

 perennial. Leaves J to ^in. long, lanceolate or rhomboid- ovate, sessile, bearded 

 at the axil, crowded near the base of the stem. Racemes few- flowered, bracts 

 minute-scarious. Pedicels 2 or 3 times as long as the calyx. Sepals 2 or 3 lines 

 long, acute, deciduous. Corolla somewhat short. Capsule 3-valved, almost 

 ovate, exocarp thin-cartilaginous, endocarp membranous. Seeds , pale-red, 

 pyramidal-trigMious, nearly J line long, thinly reticulate or papilulose. 



Hab.: Leichhardt district. 



Order XVIII. ELATINEiE. 



Flowers regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals 2 to 5, free, imbricate in the bud. 

 Petals as many, hypogynous, imbricate in the bud, occasionally wanting. 

 Stamens as many or twice as many, hypogynous, free ; anthers 2-celled. Torus 

 small, without any disk. Ovary free, with as many cells as there are sepals ; 

 styles as many, free from the base, with terminal capitate stigmas, Ovules 



