26 



alveoles, coroUse at least in ordinary forms if not always uniform- 

 tubular and bisexual, achenia lined mth rows of subtle indument, 

 which deliquesces to a less copious mucus when moistened. 



Nearly the same characters distinguish S. silvaticus and S. livi- 

 dus from the Chatham-plant ; but these two plants stand to it in a 

 stni nearer relationship on account of the extremely short ligules of 

 their female flowers, which rays are however generally not half as 

 long as their tube. S. viscosus recedes moreover in glabrous achenia; 

 its ligules are half or nearly as long as the tube ; otherwise it differs 

 biit faintly from S. silvaticus and S. lividus, from which also S. 

 crassifolius and S. vernalis again mainly seem to differ only in broader 

 and still longer ligules. How far the short-ligulate of these plants 

 are claiming distinct positions in the botanical system a renewed 

 critical disquisition must show ; and it will be well for the phyto- 

 grapher, who may attempt such disquisition, to be conscious how 

 multifarious an array of forms S. lautus presents in Australia. 



Amongst native Australian plants only one is known with yellow 

 ligules so short or even shorter than those of S. radiolatus, those of 

 S. leucoglossus (F. M. Fragm. Phyt. Austr. ii. 15) being whitish. 

 This so far allied plant is one, distributed from the author's Austra- 

 lian collections about sixteen years ago as S. brachyglossus, and 

 subsequently described by Dr. Sender as Erechtites glossanthes 

 (Linnsea, xxv. 524). It is not strictly referable to the section Pla- 

 giotome of Erechtites, inasmuch, as the ligules are considerably 

 longer than the style, and it cannot be far separated in a systematic 

 arrangement from S. silvaticus and its allies, with which it shares 

 the annual duration and very short ligules, the latter being half or 

 more than half as long as the tube, varying in length from J-1'". 

 It adds thus another form, by which the generic limitation of Erech- 

 tites is rendered quite untenable. S. brachyglossus, for which, should 

 a plant of the same name since published by Turczaninow (Bullet, 

 de la Soc. Impdr. de Mosc. xxiv. 2, 87) prove well defined, the name 

 of S. BKEVILINGUEUS may be substituted, is readily recognized from 

 S. silvaticus in either lobeless or acutely lobed leaves with less or 

 not amplexant base, in shorter tubes of the female flowers, in 

 glabrous often shorter and fewer involucre-scales, in capitula with 

 fewer flowers, in dense- or even velvet-downy achenia and in a shorter 

 pappus. These characters it maintains in widely distant localities. 

 It has been found by the author originally near St. Vincent's Gulf 

 and subsequently at Point Nepean and elsewhere about Port Phillip, 

 also on the Murray-Eiver ; by Dallachy on the Wimmera, by Beckler 



