ONAGRACEiE. g27 



8. Haloragis pinnatifida, Sp. Nov. 



H. caule erecto angulato foliisque pinnatipartitis hirtello-scabridis, seg- 

 mentis 5-7 angusto-linearibus mucronatis ; floribus spicatis folioso- 

 bracteatis polygamo-monoicis, foeminis apetalis ; ovario subgloboso 

 scabro. 



Hab. New South Wales ; on Hunter's River. 



Stem erect, a foot high, sparingly branched, angled; the angles 

 minutely scabrous with a very short bristly pubescence, otherwise gla- 

 brous. Leaves opposite and alternate, U to 2 inches, or the rameal 

 half an inch long, all pinnately parted into 5 or 7 narrowly linear seg- 

 ments, which are a quarter or half an inch, sometimes even an inch 

 long, mucronate-pointed, scabrous, especially the edges, with a minute 

 hispidity ; the lower pair near the base ; the terminal segment usually 

 longer than the others ; all about the width of the rhachis (about half 

 a line) . Flowers in terminal, lax, and somewhat interrupted spikes, 

 the lower ones conspicuously foliose-bracteate (the bracts resembling 

 the cauline leaves, but reduced in size), polygamo-moncecious, sub- 

 sessile, or the female flowers very short-pedicelled. Male flowers 2 

 lines long. Petals 4, oblong, complicate-cucullate, twice the length of 

 the lanceolate-triangular lobes of the calyx ; the keel not appendaged, 

 minutely hispid-scabrous. Stamens 8. Barren stigmas 4, oblong- 

 conical, naked. Female flowers smaller than the male and apetalous, 

 occasionally with stamens: the 4 stigmas large, sessile, densely 

 penicillate-hispid, as long as the calyx-lobes. Ovary after anthesis 

 subglobose, scabrous, even, not ribbed, four-celled. Mature fruit not 

 seen. 



This needs to be compared with Lindley's Haloragis aspera, 

 which is known only by a brief character ; and it is apparently still 

 more closely related to H. lieterophylla, Brongn. That, however, is 

 well distinguished from the present species by the hood-like petals 

 with a hispid-fimbriate keel, and the pedicellate stigmas, as well as 

 by the foliage. 



