Calostonma.] CXXXI. AMAEYLLIDE^. 1613 



2. C. album (white), 7?. Er. Prod. 298; Bcnth. Fl. Aiisti: vi. 458. Leaves 

 resembling those of Kuryclos Gunninfjhamii, but smaller, ovate, acute, tapering 

 at the base, 8 to Sin. long, 2 to Sin. broad, with distant converging primary 

 veins -and transverse veinlets. Scapes 1 to Ijft. high, bearing an umbel of 

 numerous white flowers on filiform pedicels of ^ to fin. surrounded by 8 or 4 

 bracts. Perianth-tube narrow, 4 to 5 lines long ; segments of the limb narrow, 

 not quite so long as the tube, spreading from the base so as to give the flower 

 a more hypocrateriform shape instead of the more funnel-shape of C. purjmreuin 

 and C hiteum. Corona produced between the filaments into lanceolate entire 

 or bifid lobes as long as the filaments. Fruit globular, rather large. 



Hab.; Turtle Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, R. Broion. 



A remarkable species witb the flowers of Calostemma and the leaves of Eurychs. 



Dr. Hooker's plate has been reproduced in the hope that it may be the means of the plants 

 rediscovery. 



Order CXXXII. TACCACE^. 



Flow6vs-hermaplirodite, regular. Perianth superior, persistent, tubular or 

 campanulate, 6-lobed." Stamens 6, inserted in the tube, opposite to the lobes ; 

 filaments broad, hood-shaped, shortly 2-lobed at the end ; anther-cells 2, 

 parellel, adnata to the inside of the hood and projecting between the lobes. 

 Ovary inferior, 1-celled, with 3 parietal placentas and many anatropous or 

 amphitropous ovules. Style short, with a broad umbrella-shaped stigma deeply 

 divided into 3 bifid lobes. Fruit a berry, crowned by the withered perianth. 

 Seeds ovoid, many-ribbed ; albumen copious, embryo minute, near the hilum 

 when basal, at a distance from it if lateral. — Herbs with a perennial tuberous 

 creeping or fibrous rhizome. Leaves radical, on long petioles, large and much 

 divided, or in species not Australian undivided. Flowers on a radical scape in a 

 dense terminal simple umbel, usually intermixed with long filaments (barren 

 pedicelii), and surrounded by an involucre of a few large thin bracts. 



The Order is limited to a single genus, represented in the tropical regions of the New as well 

 as the Old World. The only Australian species has a -wide range over the Indian Archipelago 

 and the Islands of the South Pacific. 



1. TACCA, Forst. 



(From the Amboynan name Taa.) 



Characters and distribution those of the Order. 



1. T. pinnatifida (pinnatifid), Forst.; Kunth, Enum. v. 458; Benth. Fl. 

 Auslr. vi. 458. " Be-ung-gal," Bloomfield Kiver; "Pe-ang-gul," Butcher's 

 Hill; "Ung-ke," Morehead Eiver; " Niu," Batavia Eiver ; " An-tith-a," 

 Eed, Island, Roth. Ehizome tuberous, globular, attaining under cultivation 

 a large size but usually not above 2 or Sin. diameter in the wild plants. 

 Petioles erect, 1 to 3ft. long below the ramification, divided always into 8 

 branches which are again often bifid or trifid or diehotomous or irregularly 

 branched, each branch pinnate with remarkably variable distant or more or 

 less confluent segments. In the larger varieties the three branches are often 

 2 to 8ft. long, once bifid or trifid, the larger segments ovate-lanceolate acuminate 

 and 4 to 6in. long, but intermixed with smaller ones, some of which often very 

 small, obovate or oblong and very obtuse ; some, whether large or small, 

 contracted, into a short petiolule and distant, others decurrent along the petiole, 

 or confluent with the next segments. In another Australian form {T. Brownii, 

 Seem. Fl. Vit. 100) the leaf-branches are under 1ft. long, the segments all more 

 or less lanceolate and acuminate but very unequal in size. In a third rather 

 distinct Australian form (var. aconitifolia, F. v. M., T. maculata, Seem. Fl. 

 Vit. 103) the leaves are more regularly divided, the branches almost diehotomous 



