102 CENTROLEPIDACEAE. 3. Centrolepis. 



1. C. polygyna (R. Br.), Hieron. Scapes 1-3 cm. high; leaves 

 much shorter ; spike narrow; floral bracts brown, glabrous, rigid, 

 the lower tapering into an awn, usually curved and often twice as 

 long as the flower ; flower solitary, with 1 scale ; carpels 5-25 ; 

 styles united near base. 



Southern districts ; Murray lands ; Eyre Peninsula ; South- 

 East. Summer. 



2. C. aristata (R. Br ), Roem. et Schult. Scapes 1-5 cm. high, 

 compressed ; leaves often as long ; spike broad ; bracts brown, 

 glabrous, both long-awned, the lower with a flat awn 10-35 mm. 

 long, or 3-8 times as long as the bract and flowers ; flowers usually 

 10-15 in each bract, each with 2-3 scales ; carpels 3-6. 



South-East to Flinders Range ; Eyre Peninsula. Summer. Fig 25. 



Centrolepis polygyna. 



3. C. glabra (F. v. M.), Hieron. Scapes and leaves filiform, reddish ; bracts glabrous 

 erect, the lower one 3-4 mm. long, including the short awn, the upper bract narrower, 

 unawned ; flowers in spike 4, without scales ; carpels 7-8. 



Murray River ; Dismal Swamp, near Mount Gambier. Summer. 



4. C. fascicularis, Labill. Scapes and leaves filiform, glabrous or sprinkled with hairs ; 

 bracts ovate, erect, covered with long rigid hairs and terminating in glabrous awns about 

 their own length ; flowers 4-8 in each bract, each with a large scale and sometimes also a 

 smaller one ; carpels 2-4 ; styles almost free. 



Mount Lofty Range ; South-East. Summer. 



5. C. strigosa (R. Br.), Roem. et Schult. Near the preceding, but the hairy floral 

 bracts more spreading, with a point or awn usually about ^ their length ; flowers 5-10 

 in each bract, each with 3 unequal fringed scales ; carpels 5-6. 



South-East to Flinders Range ; Eyre Peninsula. Summer. 



6. C. Drummondii(Nees), Hieron. Scapes capillary, 3-5 cm. high ; leaves much shorter, 

 minutely papillose ; spike lanceolate or oblong ; bracts glabrous but minutely papillose,, 

 about 4 mm. long, shortly mucronate below the scarious summit, the upper one affixed 

 1 mm. above the lower, the 2 not close together, as in most other species ; flowers 6-8 in 

 the spike, each with 1 or 2 unequal narrow scales ; carpels 4-8 ; styles united in lower 

 part. 



Wooltana Station, near Lake Frome. Summer. 



Family 25.— XYRIDACEAE. 



Flowers bisexual, each solitary within a broad imbricate rigid bract, and the whole 

 forming a terminal head ; calyx irregular, of 1 broad thin segment enveloping the corolla, 

 and 2 smaller lateral bract-like segments ; corolla tubular below, 3-lobed above ; perfect 

 stamens 3, attached to the base of the corolla-lobes and alternating with 3 staminodia ; 

 ovary superior, imperfectly 3-celled, with numerous ovules ; style 3-branched ; placentas 

 basal or parietal. 



1. XYRIS, L. 



(The Greek name for a species of Iris.) 



1. X. operculata, Labill. Perennial with slender scapes, 30-50 cm. high ; leaves linear, 

 with shining brown sheaths ; flowerhead ovoid or globular, the bracts broad and almost 

 black ; the 2 lateral calyx-segments opaque, concave, with a ciliate keel ; corolla- 

 lobes conspicuous, yellow, ovate ; capsule circumsciss near the summit ; staminodia 

 hair-tufted. 



Myponga, Square Waterhole (Mount Lofty Range) ; Encounter Bay. Summer. 



X gracilis, R. Br., which only differs from the above in being rather smaller, the lateral 

 calyx-segments not keeled, and the placentas shorter, is recorded from the Glenelg 

 River, Victoria, and may, therefore, be discovered in our State. 



Family 26— ERIOCAULACEAE. 



Flowers very small, unisexual, crowded in a solitary terminal head on a simple scape ; 

 each flower within an imbricate bract, the outer rows mostly female and th s inner male ; 

 psrianth-segments 4-6, membranous ; stamens usually 6 ovary 2-3-3elled, with 1 pendu- 

 lous ovule in each cell ; capsule splitting loculicidally. 



