Moiiota:ds.] CXVII. EUPH0EBIACEJ3. 1409 



curved, the cotyledons much longer but scarcely broader than the radicle. — • 

 Herbs or undershrubs, usually small and glabrous. Leaves alternate, entire flat 

 or with recurved margins. Stipules very small. Flowers small, in dense head- 

 like cymes, sessile or shortly pedunculate in the forks or at the ends of the 

 branches between the last leaves, the flowers more or less pedicellate within the 

 cymes, the males usually numerous, the females single in the centre or few. 

 Bracts usually several, small and scale-like, subtending the pedicels or the outer 

 ones empty. 

 A genus of about eight species endemic in Australia. 



1. IVE. macrophylla (leaves long), Benth. Fl. Austr. vi. 79. — An ei:ect 

 glabrous slightly branched annual of about 1ft. Leaves opposite or alternate, 

 <m rather long petioles, oblong or ovate-oblong, obtuse, entire, thin and flat, 

 1 to 2in. long. Flower-heads (or dense cymes) shortly pedunculate above the 

 last leaves, containing several female flowers intermixed with or surrounded 

 by numerous males. Male calyx of 4 very slightly imbricate petal-like seg- 

 ments of about f line. Petals minute. Stamens 7 or 8. Ovary of the females 

 only seen in very youug bud, the styles then short and involute, and of the 

 capsules the specimens examined only showed the persistent axis, about 1 line 

 long, from which the cocci had fallen away. 



Hab.: Summit of Mdunt Danger near Moreton Bay, ^. Cunningham; Bundaberg, Jas. Keys 

 <may belong to this species but specimens imperfect). 



9. AMPEREA, A. Juss. 



(After M. Ampere) 



Flowers moncecious or dioecious. Male flower : Perianth campanulate, some- 

 Avhat petal-like, 3- to 5-lobed, without inner petals. Stamens twice as many as 

 perianth-lobes or fewer, the filaments free or shortly united at the base, without 

 any rudimentary ovary and sometimes surrounded by as many small glands as 

 perianth-lobes ; anthers 2-celled or 1 or more of the outer ones one-celled, the 

 cells distinct, globular or ovoid, parallel, opening longitudinally in 2 valves, the 

 connective usually tipped with a small gland. Female flower : Perianth more 

 ■deeply divided than the males into 5 rarely 4 rather rigid lobes, persistent but 

 scarcely enlarged under the fruit. Ovary 3-celled, with one ovule in each cell. 

 Styles 3, more or less deeply divided into 2 branches. Capsule ovoid, crowned 

 Ijy a ring of 6 erect tooth-like appendages, each on the back of one of the valves, 

 separating into 3 2-valved cocci. Seeds ovoid-oblong, smooth, carunculate. 

 Embryo, where known, linear, slightly curved, the cotyledons longer but scarcely 

 broader than the radicle. — Perennials or undershrubs with a hard often woody 

 h&se or rhizome, the stems erect or procumbent, usually rigid, sometimes almost 

 ■or quite leafless. Leaves when present alternate, linear, either entire with 

 closely revolute margins, or flat and then sometimes toothed. Stipules small 

 ■brown and scarious. Flowers very small in small axillary closely sessile tufts, 

 surrounded by scarious bracts, the males usually numerous, the females few or 

 solitary, all on very short pedicels or almost sessile. Capsule small. 



The genus is endemic in Australia, and the species, so far as at present known, all Western 

 «xoept A. spuriioides, 



1. A., spartioides (Spartium-like), Brongn.inBupcn-. Toy. Coq. 226, i. 49 A ; 

 Benth. Fl. Austr. vi. 84. Stems, from a hard woody base or rhizome, erect, . 

 1 to 2ft. high, rigid, flat or 3-angled, often above 1 line or even 2 lines broad, 

 usually leafless at the time of flowering. Leaves few only on the young stems or 

 in the lower portion, euneate-oblong, often toothed, contracted into a short 

 petiole; ■J- or sometimes lin. long, the floral ones when present few and very 

 much smaller, linear and entire. Stipules small, deeply fringed or lobed. 



