Ti-icoi-y7ie.] CXXXV. LILlACEiB. 1637 



erect, emarginate at the base, the cells opening inwards in longitudinal slits. 

 Ovary sessile, deeply 3-lobed and 3-celled, with 2 erect ovules in each cell or 

 lobe ; style fiiliform, undivided. Fruit divided to the base into 3 (reduced some- 

 times by abortion to 2 or 1) 1 -seeded indehiscent nutlets, dry or slightly fleshy, 

 strongly reticulate or ribbed. Seed black with a crustaceous testa and fleshy 

 albumen. — Perennials with fibrous roots. Stems usually wiry and branching, 

 the branches often clustered. Leaves few and grass-like, or all reduced to 

 scarious scales ; more rarely small and more leafy plants. Flowers in terminal 

 umbels with small imbricate scarious bracts, of which one or two outer empty 

 ones often elongated or leaf-like. 

 The genus is limited to Australia. 



Stems wiry or rush-liiie, branched and without leaves, except a few^at the 

 base, usually 1 to 2ft. high. Flowers 6, or fewer in the umbel or' rarely 

 more. 



Stems bordered by narrow wings 1. T. platyptera. 



.Stems usually with clustered branches, deeply striate, acutely angled, or 

 slightly flattened. 



Quite glabrous 2. T. anceps. 



.Stem and branches hispid S. T. mwricata. 



Stems less branched, terete, or slightly striate , i. T. elatior. 



Stems simple, under 1ft. , with a single many-flowered umbel, and rather 

 long radical leaves 5. T. simplex, 



1. T. platyptera (broadly-winged), lieichb. f. Beitr. Syst. PjUanxenk 72 ; 

 Benth. FL Austr. vii. 51. Stems from a shortly creeping base erect 

 •or ascending, sparingly branched, 1 to nearly 2ft. high, the branches 

 flattened with the margins more or less winged, the total breadth varying from 1 

 to 3 lines. Leaves very few at the base of the stem and rarely lin. long, those 

 Tinder the branches rigid, erect, under Jin. or all reduced to very small scales. 

 "Umbels of several, often more than 6, flowers. Perianth-segments 4 to 5 lines 

 long, the pedicels nearly as long. Bracts under the pedicels all very small. 

 Nutlets obliquely ovoid, nearly two lines long, strongly ribbed when dry, 

 contracted at the base into a short thick stipes. — T. pterocaulon. Baker in Journ. 

 Linn. Soc. xv. 363. 



Hab.: Sandy shores, Cape York, Vcitch, Daemel ; Fitzroy Island, Walter; Dunk Island, 

 M'GilUvray ; Cleveland Bay, Bowman; Port Denison, Hecate Expedition; gathered also in 

 Sanii's Expedition; common in tropical localities. 



2. T. anceps (two-edged), R. Br. Prod. 278; Benth. FL Austr. vii. 51. 

 ■Stems erect, slender but rigid and very much branched, the branches often 

 ■densely clustered, the principal ones prominently striate, but terete or slightly 

 -compressed, the numerous smaller ones flattened or acutely 3-or 4-angled but not 

 ■distinctly winged. Leaves reduced to small scales. Umbels of 8 to 6 flowers, 

 with very small bracts. Perianth-segments about 4 lines long, the pedicels 

 shorter.. Nutlets as large as in T. idaUjptera but smooth. — Baker in Journ. 

 Linn. Soc. xv. 363. 



Hab.: Sandy shores, Endeavour Biver, Banks and Solander, A. Cunningham; Eockingham 

 Bay, Dallachy ; and many other tropical localities. 



3. T. muricata (muricate). Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. xv. 363; Benth. 

 FL Austr. vii. 52. Stems erect, rigid, with numerous slender strongly striate or 

 .angular branches as in T. anceps, but the angles hispid with small rigid trans- 

 parent hairs. Leaves reduced to scales, umbels and flowers of T. anceps, of 

 which this might be placed as a hispid variety. 



Hab.: Wide Bay, Bidwill. 



4. T. elatior (taller), E. Dr. Prod. 278 ; Benth. FL Austr. vii. 52. Stems 

 from a perennial sometimes thick and woody rhizome erect or ascending more or 

 ^fiss hraTnehoA nffon nn/ia,. 1 ff but Sometimes above 2ft. high, the branches few 



