1512 CXXV. HYDEOCHARIDE^. [Halophila. 



-■ — Submerged marine herbs. Leaves in pairs apparently opposite, sessile or 

 |)etiolate, the petioles frequently enclosed at the base in 2 broad scarious white or 

 hyaline scales. Floral bracts axillary, sessile or the males pedicellate. 



The genus is confined to the Indian and West Pacific Ocean and Mediterranean sea. Of the 

 two Qaeensland species one is widely dispersed over the shores of the Indian and Pacific 

 •Oceans, the other is endemic. 



Leaves on ]ong petioles with an ovate or oblong entire lamina 1. H. ovalis. 



Leaves sessile or nearly so, broadly linear, rounded and oiliate-toothed at the 



end 2. if. spinulosa. 



1. H. ovalis (oval). Hook. Fl. Tasm. ii. 45 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 182. 

 ■Stems creeping and rooting under water, emitting at each node 2 broad thin 

 ■colourless hyaline scales 2 or 3 lines diameter, and within them a pair of leaves 

 with long slender petioles and a herbaceous lamina varying from oval and under 

 l^in. long to oblong-elliptical and 2 to 2 Jin. long, very thin, penniveined with a 

 broad central nsrve and very fine oblique lateral veins, the margins quite entire. 

 Involucres or double spathes enclosing the flowers ovate, sessile within the scales. 

 Male flowers on pedicels emerging from the involucre, females sessile within it.^— 

 CauUnia ovalis, R. Br. Prod. 339 ; Halophila ovata, Gaudich. in Freyc. Voy. Bol. 

 t. 40, f . 1 ; F. V. M. Fragm. viii. 219 ; Diplanthera, Griff. Ic. PI. Asiat. t. 161, 

 c. f. 2. 



Hab. ; Common on the coast at about low water mark. 



2. H, spinulosa (spiny), Benth, Fl. Austr. vii. 183, Stems slender, sub- 

 merged, with simple branches of 3 to Gin. long. Leaves opposite, distichous 

 sessile, broadly linear or almost spathulate, rounded at the end and bordered by 

 small acute teeth or cilia, J to fin. long and about 2 to 3J lines broad, 3-nerved, 

 without any scales or sheathing stipules at the base, but the margins on the 

 lower side dilated into a semi-oval apperidage folded over the lamina. Male 

 flowers unknown. Female within a pair of small herbaceous bracts sessile in the 

 axils. Capsule solitary, ovate, about 2 or 2^ lines long, apparently bursting 

 irregularly. Seeds several, rather more than J line diameter. Embryo almost 

 globular, the plumula and the narrow cotyledonous end curved over it, both 

 ■enclosed in a cavity at the top of the embryo. — CauUnia spinulosa, R. Br. 

 Prod. 339. 



Hab.: Port Denison, Kilner ; Coral reefs, Albany Island, F. v. M. ; Cape York, Mosley. 



Order CXXYI. BURMANNIACEiE. 



Flowers hermaphrodite, regular. Perianth superior, persistent, tubular or 

 •campanulate, usually 6-lobed, the three inner lobes often smaller or sometimes 

 wanting. Stamens 3 or 6, inserted in the tube and shorter than the perianth. 

 Anthers 2-celled. Ovary inferior, 3-celled or with 3 parietal placentas, the ovules 

 very numerous. Style single, with 3 short branches stigmatic at the clavate or 

 dilated ends. Fruit a capsule opening in loculicidal slits or valves. Seeds 

 minute, the embryo apparently homogeneous. — Herbs often slender. Leaves 

 ■entire, radical or nearly so, rarely alternate along the stem, sometimes all reduced 

 to scales. Flowers terminal, solitary or several along a 2-branched rarely 

 3-branched rhachis, centrifugally developed, each flower opposite to a small often 

 minute bract. 



A small Order, usually frequenting swamps or wet places or decaying vegetable soils, common 

 ito the New and the Old World. The Queensland genus has the general range of the Order. 



