BY J. H. MAIDEN AND E. BBTCHE. 395 



M. pedunculatum grows generally in mud and has short leaves, 

 and we took the view that the longer leaves and other differences 

 were due to the aquatic habit. 



Prof. Schindler's Monograph shows how very much the 

 Australian Halorrhagacete have been neglected and misunderstood 

 by Australian botanists. Out of the fifteen Australian species 

 described by him, only the smaller part are recent discoveries; 

 the greater number are plants long known, but mixed up in 

 various herbaria with other species; three of these species are 

 Victorian, apparently common plants, to judge from the number 

 of localities and herbaria quoted, but unrecognised even by 

 Baron von Mueller, the leading Australian botauist for the latter 

 half of the last century. A careful comparison of Prof. Schindler's 

 key to the species of Halorrhagis with Bentham's key in the 

 " Flora Australiensis " is very instructive, and explains why so 

 many species were not recognised. Bentham based the main 

 divisions of his Key on the opposite or alternate position of 

 leaves and flowers, and entirety neglected or under-estimated the 

 systematic value of some characters, for instance the bracteoles; 

 while Prof. Schindler's system is principally based on the 

 characters of the reproductive organs, and the position of the 

 leaves is utilised only in smaller subdivisions. Of course we 

 must not accept all Prof. Schindler's species uncritically; his 

 descriptions are probably occasionally based on scanty material, 

 but we live in the midst of abundance of fresh material and 

 should continue the work on the lines laid down for us in the 

 Monograph. 



Besides the description of new species Prof. Schindler has made 

 several changes in nomenclature which will be seen in the 

 following Census of New South Wales Halorrhagaceaa : — 



1. Loudonia Lii.dl. 



Behrii Schlecht. in Linnsea, xx. (1847) 648. 



2. Halorrhagis Forst. 



Section i— Monanthus. 

 data A. Cnnn., ex Fenzl, in Hueg. Enum. (1837) 45. 

 tenuis Schindler, n.sp. 



