Xerotes.] CXLI. JUNCACE^. 1661 



frequently pyrimidal with numerous more or less clustered spreading branches, 

 the whole inflorescence from 6in. to nearly IJft. long. Flowers small, very 

 fragrant, sessile and numerous in dense clusters sessile along the rhachis at the 

 base and ends of the branches, the clusters more numerous in the males than in 

 the females. Bracts under the clusters shortly broad at the base, usually with 

 long rigid subulate points, sometimes all far exceeding the flowers, sometimes 

 nearly all short except under the lowest clusters. Bracts or bracteoles subtending 

 or enclosing the flowers broad and hyaline, shorter than the perianths, often very 

 numerous in the females, fewer or united into 1 under each flower in the males. 

 Perianth varying from 1 to nearly 2 lines in length, usually but not always 

 larger in the females than in the males, the 3 outer segments quite free, much 

 imbricate, rigid and scarious though often very thin, the 3 inner more petal-hke 

 and obtuse but not longer, shortly united at the base in the males. Filaments 

 short, dilated at the base, attached to the base of the inner perianth. Male 

 flowers usually without any rudimentary ovarj. Capsule shortly protruding from 

 the persistent perianth, ovoid or almost globular, 2 to B lilies diameter, hard, 

 smooth and shining. —Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 63; F. v. M. Fragm. viii. 210 ; 

 Bot. Eeg. 1839, t. 3 ; Lomamlra lonrjifolia, Labill. 1*1. Nov. Holl. i. 92, t. 119. 



Hab.: Broadsound and Thirsty Sound, E. Bfotvn; from Moreton Bay, F. v. Mueller and 

 ottiers, to Eookhampton, O'ShaneSy ; Kookingham Bay, DallacMj; Buidekin Biver, F. v. 

 Mjieller ; very common on damp land. 



Used for making dilly-bags. — Roth. 



Leaves sometimes infested witli the fungus-blight, Lcestadia xerotifolia. C. A M. 



This species varies like others in the length and breadth of the leaves, but much more 

 conspicuously in the size and ramification of thfe panicle. 



3. X. multiflora (flowers numerous), R. Br. Prod. 262 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. 

 vii. 100. " Mau-u," Bloomfield Eiver, Roth, hesiiy base of the stem very short 

 and tufted. Leaves radical, rigid, 1 to 2ft. long, varying from very narrow to 

 nearly 2 lines broad. Scape terete or slightly flattened under the inflorescence, 

 and including the inflorescence often longer than the leaves, but sometimes quite 

 short, usually rigid. Panicle from a few inches to 1ft. long, the branches rigid, 

 divaricate, mostly in clusters of 3 to 6 from the same node, rarely again 

 branched. Male flowers clustered along the branches or at the ramifications, all 

 pedicellate. Bracts and bracteoles numerous, small, scarious, the bracteoles 

 often connate. Pedicels filiform, sometimes scarcely exceeding the bracts, 

 sometimes 2 to 3 lines long. Perianth-segments free nearly from the base, 

 about 1 line long, the inner rather longer than the outer and sometimes slightly 

 acuminate. Filaments rather long, 3 of them adnate to the inner segments 

 nearly half way up, the other 3 free almost from the base. Female rhachis 

 simple or with a few branches from the lower clusters. Flowers sessile, longer 

 than in the males, the perianth-segments attaining sometimes 2 lines. Capsule 

 about 3 lines diameter, the valves rigidly coriaceous, marked with more or 

 less prominent transverse wrinkles. — X. Broivnei, F. v. M. Fragm. viii. 206. 



Hab.: Endeavour Biver and, Bustard Bay, Banks and Solander; Keppel Bay, R. Brown; 

 Moreton Bay, Flood ; Peak Downs, F. v. Mueller ; Eockhampton, Thozet, O'Shanesy, Bowman \ 

 Bockingham Bay, Dallachy ; Port Denison, Fitzalan ; very common on open land. 



Used for making dilly-bags. — Roth., I.e. 



4. X. SOroria (allied to previous species), F. v. M. in Herb. Kew. : Benth. Fl. 

 Aiisfr. vii. 100. Habit of the long rigid narrow-leaved forms of X. Jiliformis, 

 but the panicles small, very narrow and compact, with very short erect branches 

 or reduced to a single spike, and the flowers all erect and very shortly pedicellate. 

 Fruit (in the Eockhampton specimens) rather longer than in X. filiformis, deeply 

 marked with transverse wrinkles. —Benth. 



Hab.: Bockingham Bay, Dallachy ; Eowen Eiver, Eookhampton, Boxcman, 

 Part V. V 



