d-yptandra.] XXXVIII. RHAMNEJ]. 276 



oalyx-tube, 3-celled. Style entire or minutely 3-toothed. Capsule enclosed in the 

 base of the persistent calyx-tube, but often partially free within it, the endocarp or 

 the whole capsule separating into three crustaceous or rarely membranous cocci 

 usually opening inwards in 2 valves. Seeds of Powtadems.— Shrubs, mostly 

 heath-like or thorny. Leaves small, narrow, often clustered, rarely ovate and 

 flat, often nearly cylindrical, the under surface usually tomentose and whitish, but 

 often concealed by the closely revolute margins. Flowers sessile or shortly 

 pedicellate, mostly surrounded by persistent imbricate brown bracts, either 

 distinct along the smaller branches or clustered in terminal spikes or heads 

 intermixed with leaves, never in cymes. 



A genus confined to AuBtralia. Like the majority of Rhamneie, it is chiefly distinguished by 

 habit. The floral characters of the first section are nearly those of Stenanthemum, of the second 

 scarcely distinct from Discaria. — Benth. 



_ Sect. 1._ Cryptandra. — Disk usually pubescent, continums with the summit of the ovary, 

 either undistinguishable from it or forming a slightly prominent ring round it. 

 Flowers pubescent or hairy, closely sessile in terminal or lateral heads. 

 Brown bracts acuminate. Calyx tubular. Heads many-flowered. Calyx 



narrow. Ovary almost entirely inferior 1. C. ericifolia. 



Flowers pubescent or hairy, sessile in spikes or short heads, or not crowded. 

 Brown bracts obtuse, very much shorter than the calyx-tube. - 

 Calyx 1 line long or more, the tube longer than the lobes. 

 Calyx narrow, glabrous outside at the base, tomentose above. Adnate 

 base of the ovary longer than the free top .... .... 2. C. spinescens. 



Calyx' broadly campanulate or uroeolate, tomentose all over. Free 

 part of the ovary longer than the adnate base 3. C. amara. 



Sect. 2. Wicliurea. — Disk glabrous or villous, distinct from the ovary, usually annular. 

 Calyx glabrous or very slightly tomentose. 

 Leaves linear, with revolute margins. Calyx campanulate, deeply lobed. 



Disk and ovary glabrous .... 4. C. longistaminea. 



1. C. ericifolia (heath-like), Sm. in Trans. Linn. Soc. x 294, t. 18, /. 1 ; 

 Benth. Fl. Austr. i. 438. Branches elongated and twiggy, with few smaller 

 branchlets, always unarmed, more or less pubescent with simple appressed hairs. 

 Leaves linear-terete, or with a slightly prominent midrib, 2 to 4 lines long, often 

 clustered or crowded, glabrous or pubescent with simple appressed hairs. Flowers 

 crowded in little terminal heads surrounded by leafy bracts, and each flower by 

 several imbricate, acuminate, and ciliate brown bracts, often half as long as the 

 calyx. Calyx narrow-campanulate, about 2 lines long, silky-hairy outside, the 

 lobes short and spreading. Ovary very small, slightly projecting above the very 

 short adnate part. Style pubescent at the base. Disk inconspicuous. Cocci 

 opening in 2 valves. — C. capitata, Sieb. PI. Exs. 



Hab.: Stanthorpe. 



2. C. spinescens (spinous), Sieb. in DC. Prod. ii. 38 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. i. 

 489. Nearly allied to C. amara, and with nearly the same foliage, but the 

 branches are usually more twiggy and the spinous branchlets more densely 

 crowded. Leaves usually linear or linear-oblong, 2 or rarely 3 lines long, but 

 occasionally small and obovate. Flowers smaller than in G. amara, and more 

 distinctly although very shortly pedicellate. Calyx If to 2 lines long, narrow- 

 campanulate, the adnate base glabrous and suddenly contracted into a little stipes 

 about the length of the imbricate brown bracts, the free part white-tomentose 

 outside. Ovary almost entirely inferior, the pubescent summit slightly prominent 

 above the adnate part and obscurely grooved opposite the stamens, but without 

 any distinct disk. Capsule oblong, 1^ to 2 lines long, almost included in the 

 glabrous, elongated, adnate base of the calyx-tube, shortly free in the upper part. 

 Cocci thinly crustaceous. — C. pyramidalis, R, Br., Brongn. in Ann. Sc Nat, 

 X. 373. 



Hab-; Southern parts of the colony. 



