43 



rAXTON'S FLOWER GARDEN. 



more recently by Capt. Sturt, on his Barrier Range, near the Darling-. I have examined 

 specimens from all these localities, and am satisfied that they bdong to one and the same 

 species. 



ff ln March (not May), 1818, Mr. Cunningham, who accompanied Capt. King in his voyages of 

 survey of the coasts of New Holland, found on one of the islands of Dampier's Archipelago, a plant 

 which he then regarded as identical with that of Regent's Lake. This appears from the following 

 passages of his MS. Journal :— 



" ' 1 was not a tittle surprised to find Kennedya speciosa (his original name for Clianthus Oxleyi) 

 a plant discovered in July, 1817, on sterile bleak open flats, near Regent's Lake, on the River 

 Lachlan, in lat. 33° 13' S., and long. 146° 40' E. It is not common; I could see only three plants, 

 of which one was in flower. This island is the Isle Malus of the Trench/ Mr. Cunningham Was 

 not then aware of the figure and description in Dampier above referred to, which, however, in his 

 communication to the Horticultural Society in 1834, he quotes for the plant of the Isle Malus, then 

 regarded by him as a distinct species from Clianthus Oxleyi of the River Lachlan. To this opinion 

 he was probably in part led by the article ' Donia, or Clianthus/ in Don's St/stem of Gardening and 

 Botany, vol. II. p. 468, in which a third species of the genus is introduced, founded on a specimen 

 in Mr. Lambert's Herbarium, said to have been discovered at Curlew River, by Capt. King. This 

 species named Clianthus JDampieri, by Cunningham, he characterises as having leaves of a slightly 

 different form, but its principal distinction is in its having racemes instead of umbels j at the same time 

 he confidently refers to Dampier' s figure and description, both of which prove the flowers 'to be umbellate, 

 as he describes those of his Clianthus Oxleyi to be. But as the flowers in this last plant are never 

 strictly umbellate, and as I have met with specimens in which they are rather corymbose, I have no 

 hesitation in referring Dampier' s specimen, which many years ago I examined at Oxford, as well as 

 Cunningham's, to Clianthus Dampieri. This specimen, however, cannot now be found in his 

 Herbarium, as Mr. Heward, to whom he bequeathed his collections, informs me ; nor can I trace 

 Mr. Lambert's plant, his Herbarium having been dispersed. 



" Since the preceding observations were written, I have seen, in Sir William Hooker's Herbarium, 

 two specimens of a Clianthus, found by Mr. Bynoe, on the north-west coast of Australia, in the 

 voyage of the Beagle. Thesa specimens, I have no doubt, are identical with Dampier' s plant, and 

 they agree both in the form of leaves and in their subumbellate inflorescence, with the plant of the 

 Lachlan, Darling, and the Gawler Range. Prom the form of the half-ripe pods of one of these 

 specimens, I am inclined to believe that this plant, at present referred to Clianthus, will, when its ripe 

 pods are known, prove to be sufficiently different from the original New Zealand species, to form a 

 distinct genus ; to which, if such should be the case, the generic name Eremocharis may be given, as 

 it is one of the greatest ornaments of the desert regions of the interior of Australia, as well as of the 

 sterile islands of the north-west coast." 



It is possible that this may be intended to cover some further meaning than can be assigned to 

 the words as they would be interpreted by ordinary readers. We can only remark that we find in 

 this plant no indication of a genus different from Clianthus ; in fact, we see less to separate it from 

 the Clianths than is to be found in Endlicher's Streblorhize (Clianthus carneus). At all events, it 

 is much to be regretted that naturalists should thoughtlessly encumber books with names of which 

 there is no present or probable want. It is early enough to add to the chaos of Botanical nomen- 

 clature when a clear case of scientific necessity can be made out. 



