1658 CXL. FLAGELLARIACEiE. [Fla>)ellana. 



-albumen. Embryo small, broadly clavate, at a distance from the hilum. — Leafy 

 •climbers, with long leaves ending in a spirally twisted point. Flowers small, i'n 

 a terminal panicle. 



Species few, tlie Queensland one extending over the tropical regions of Asia and Africa. 



1. P. indica (Indian), Linn. ; Kunih., Enum. iii. 370 ; Bmth. Fl. Austi: vii. 

 10. "Pain-ki," TuUy River, lioth. A tall glabrous climber, ascendiBg 

 sometimes to the tops of large trees, the stem ^ to lin. thick and mostly 

 ■encased in the closed leaf-sheaths. Leaves long-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 

 from 4 or 5in. long to twice that length, besides the long points spirally 

 twisted into tendrils, variable in breadth, many-nerved but not plicate, 

 rounded at the base and almost petiolate on the sheath which ends on each side 

 in a short rounded auricle. Flowers white, very numerous, sessile in clusters or 

 short spikes on the ultimate small branches of a dense terminal panicle, with a 

 small scale-like bract under each flower and under the smaller branches. 

 Perianth-segments about 1 line long. Fruit about 2 lines diameter. — Red. LiL 

 V. t. 257 ; Schnitzl, Iconogr. i. t. 51. b ; R. Br. Prod. 264. 



Hab.: Northumberland and Prince of Wales Islands, E, Brown; islands along the coast, 

 A. Cimniiigliam; Ca'pe Yoii., M'GilUway, Daemel; Bockingham Ba;, Da22ac7t2/ ; Boekhampton, 

 O'Shanesy, Bowman and others ; Moreton Bay, Eaves. 



Stems used for handles of fishing-nets. Roth, I.e. 



Var. gracilicaulis. The stems of this form are seldom thicker than a pipe stem ; the leaves 

 are usually narrower and seem more numerous. The panicles are more elongated, and have 

 ifewer and more spreading branches. 



Hab.: Scrubs about the Barron River. 



Order CXLI. JUNCACEiE. 



Flowers hermaphrodite or dioecious. Perianth inferior, persistent, with or 

 without a distinct tube, the limb or perianth of 6 lobes or segments imbricate in 

 '-2, series or the outer ones rarely valvate, all or at least the outer ones, or in 

 •dioecious species, at least the females glume-like or rigid, or scarious thin and 

 almost hyaline, the inner ones rarely somewhat petal-like. Stamens usually 6, 

 •attached to the base of the lobes or segments or almost hypogynous, the 3 

 •opposite the inner segments deficient in a few species ; filaments ;f ree ; anthers 

 erect or versatile, with 2 parallel cells opening laterally or inwards in longitudinal 

 slits. Ovary superior, 8-eelled or if 1-celled with 3 parietal or basal placentae, 

 with 1 or several ovules to each cell or placenta, anatropous or amphitropous. 

 "Style either single with a small terminal stigma, or short and more or less deeply 

 ■divided into 3 oblong or subulate recurved stigmatie branches. Fruit a capsule, 

 opening loeulicidally in 3 valves, or rarely owing to the splitting of the valves 

 '6-valved. Seeds erect or laterally attached, ovoid globular angular or rarely 

 flattened, the testa appressed, rarely black and not shining. Embryo small and 

 basal, rarely linear and transverse, in a hard or fleshy rarely almost mealy 

 albumen. — Perennial or rarely annual rigid herbs, with a short or tuberous or 

 •creeping rhizome, or the stock growing up into a woody caudex rarely almost 

 arborescent. Flowerii^g steins or scapes leafless or nearly so except at the base, 

 or branching and leafy and then usually slender and covered by the leaf-sheaths. 

 Leaves mostly radical narrow grass-like or rigid with fine parallel veins. Flowers 

 small (except in Calectasieee), green brown or whitish, very rarely blue, often 

 •densely clustered with small imbricate scarious bracts, the single flowers or 

 ■clusters solitary and terminal or in terminal panicles. 



The two typical genera of this somewhat heterogeneous order are amongst the most generally 

 spread, especially in extratropical and subtropical regions. The Order is very nearly allied to 

 Liliacete, to which some of the genera here included have been occasionally referred, according 

 as the greatest weight has been attached to the distinctive characters derived from the perianth 

 the seed or th« habit. ' 



