36 



length of 1^'", but generally shorter. Capsule 1^-3'" long, often 

 conspicuously attenuated at the summit, with as many valves- as 

 divisions of the calyx, to which they are opposite. Seeds brown, 

 plane-convex or compressed, roundish or somewhat angular, \-\"' 

 long. 



S. subnudicaulis (St. Hilaire accord, to Comptrend. Acad. Scient. 

 Paris, 1838, second sem. p. 98 ; Duby, 1. c. viii. 74) agrees as far as 

 the description permits of judging with S. litoralis. 



Sprengel (Syst. Veg. i. 703) refers Androsace spathulata (Cavanill. 

 Icon. V. 66, t. 484, f. 1 ; Samolus spathulatus, Duby in Cand. Prodr. 

 viii. 74) also to this species, though the enclosed stamens point rather 

 to S. Valerandi. Thunberg, according to Steudel (Nomenclat. Botanic, 

 ii. 509) gave to S. litoralis or S. campanuloides the name S. porosus, 

 perhaps nowhere distinctly published. 



Persoon's name for the plant; S. repens (Synops. Plant, i. 171), in 

 strict' justice to priority ought to take precedence of that usually 

 now adopted for the species, although it applies only to a variety; 

 but neither is the name S. litoralis strictly applicable, inasmuch as 

 the species occurs abundantly inland, and as the appellation was 

 intended by R. Brown merely for the more ordinary not the almost 

 leafless forms of the species. S. ebracteatus (Kunth in Humboldt & 

 Bonpl. Nov. Gen. et Spec. ii. 223, 1. 129 ; Ecem. & Schult. Syst. Veg. 

 V. 2 ; Duby, 1. c. viii. 74 ; Chapman, Flora of the Southern United 

 States, 282) requires a renewed elucidation ; its description accords 

 neither with S. repens nor with S. Valerandi, though more with the 

 former than with the latter ; by the apparent want of staminodia it 

 cannot be distinguished, since we may observe them in Australian 

 specimina of S. repens occasionally also so short as not to extend 

 beyond the portion adnate to the corollar-tube. Hence the depressed- 

 globose capsule with inflexed valves and the enclosed stamens alone 

 seem to distinguish it and if so probably not specificially. The short 

 note on S. caulescens (Willd. accord., to Rcem. & Schult. 1. c. v. 4) 

 agrees equally with S. Valerandi and S. repens. S. Americanus 

 (Spreng. Syst. Veg. i. 703) can from its brief and insignificant de^ 

 scription likewise not be recognized. It appears thus not improbable 

 that only two species of this genus exists, the Linnean one widely 

 dispersed over the globe, the other restricted to the southern hemi- 

 sphere, unless S. ebracteatus should be referable to our plant. 



The occasion seems appropriate for furnishing a new diagnosis 

 of the original species, although it has been found neither in New 

 Zealand nor the Chatham-Islands. 



