736 NOTES FROM THE BOTANIC GARDENS, NO. 12, 



long narrow lobes. Flower-heads at least 1 inch in diameter with 

 expanded rays, the rays blue. 



In Moore and Betche's " Handbook of the Flora of New South 

 Wales" it has been attempted, for the sake of an artificial key, 

 to divide the New South Wales species of Br achy com*, into two 

 groups, one with radical leaves only, and the other with stem- 

 leaves; but practical experience has proved that this key is quite 

 unworkable, there being too much variation between radical 

 leaves and stem-leaves in the genus. Br achy come pachyptera 

 has been hitherto regarded as one of the few species with strictly 

 radical leaves; but the Paroo River specimens show that even 

 this species varies in this respect. Max Koch's Mt. Lyndhurst 

 (S.A.) specimens have also stem-leaves instead of radical leaves. 



Generally speaking, we can say that the eastern forms of B. 

 pachyptera have strictly radical leaves and leafless scapes; the 

 rosette of leaves dissolves into stem-leaves only in the far west of 

 New South Wales, beyond the Darling. 



ASCLEPIADACE.E. 

 Marsdenia rostrata K.Br. var. Dunnii, n.var. 



Acacia Creek, Macpherson Range (Mrs. J. L. Dunew; December, 

 1905). 



Leaves somewhat smaller and on shorter petioles than in the 

 typical M. rostrata, sparingly pubescent on both sides, the young 

 shoots densely pubescent with very short hairs. Umbels on 

 shorter peduncles, more numerous and more crowded than in the 

 type. The variety is chiefly distinguished from the type by the 

 arrangement of the hairs in the corolla-tube. The lobes are hairy 

 as in the type, but the tube is lined with five thickened longi- 

 tudinal ridges alternating with the lobes and densely ciliate in 

 the upper part; or, from another point of view, the thick tube is 

 provided with five longitudinal grooves opposite the lobes and 

 edged with hairs in the uj)per part. These grooves lead down to 

 the gynostegium and represent, no doubt, a special adaptation to 

 insect fertilization. The tube is proportionately rather longer 



