576 
APPENDIX. [ Botany of Terra Australis. 
ASPHODELEiE.f In this order I include the greater part, both of 
Asphodelem and Asparageae of Jussieu, distinguishable from each other 
only by texture and dehiscence of fruit; differences which, as they separate 
Stypandra from Dianella, and Eustrephus from Luzuriaga, cannot be 
admitted to be of more than generic importance. 
I confess myself unable to point out satisfactory distinguishing cha- 
racters for this order, in my description of which, however, I have noted 
two circumstances, neither of them indeed peculiar to the order, but 
both of them appearing to extend through the whole of it ; namely, the 
reduction of stamina from six to three, which occasionally occurs, con- 
stantly taking place by the suppression of those opposite to the outer series 
of the perianthium ; and the existence of the black crustaceous testa or 
outer integument of the seed. It is probable I have given too much weight 
to this latter circumstance, in combining, partly on account of it, genera 
so very dissimilar as Anthericum, Xanthorrhma, and Astelia. 
Xanthorrhoea, which I have included in Asphodelese, is in habit one of 
the most remarkable genera of Terra Australis, and gives a peculiar charac- 
ter to the vegetation of that part of the country where it abounds. This 
genus is most frequent in the principal parallel, but it extends to the south 
end of Van Diemen’s Island, and is also found within the tropic. 
A plant of a very similar habit to Xanthorrhoea, agreeing with it in its 
caudex and leaves, having, however, a very different inflorescence, was 
observed abundantly at King George’s Sound, but with fructification so 
decayed and imperfect that I have not been able to determine the structure 
either of its flower or fruit. This plant is introduced by Mr. Westall in the 
view of King George’s Sound published in captain Flinders’s account of his 
voyage. 
I had annexed Ilypoxis and Curculigo to the Asphodeleae, chiefly on 
account of a similarity in the testa of the seed ; but they differ so much 
from this order in other parts of their structure, and from Amaryllideae both 
in this respect and in the singular umbilicus of the seed, as well as in 
habit, that it is better to consider them as forming a separate family. 
Of this family, which may be called Hypoxide.*,* only five species 
* Prodr.fi. nov. holt. 274, 
t Hypoxide^e. Perianthium superum : limbo sexpartito, regulari, aestivationeimbri- 
