31 cut nut l of ^Ijurmcin. 
No. 3.] MARCH, 1886. [Vol. I. 
©rugimtl mxfr Jitetfcjdtefr J\x**jaU£A 
NOTES ON A NEW GOODENIA FROM ARNHEIM’S LAND; 
By Baeon Feed. Yon Muellee, K.C.M.G., M & Ph.D., F.B.S., F.C.S. &c. 
Goodenia cirrifica. — Herbaceous ; stems thin, almost from the base repeatedly 
dichotomous, glabrous or scantily hairy or densely beset with minute gland- 
bearing hair ; radical leaves short, almost lanceolar, those at the base of the 
branches and branchlets very small, cylindric-linear or often reduced to minute 
almost semilanceolar bract-like scales ; ultimate branchlets exceedingly thin, 
almost capillary, many of them hook-like or tendril-like recurved ; stalklets 
terminal, solitary, longer than the calyx, minutely bibracteolate ; flowers small ; 
calyx closely beset with very short glandular hair, its lobes semielliptic, 
shorter than the tube, bearing some longer scattered hair ; corolla dull -yellow, 
outside minutely glandular-pubescent and towards the summit hairy, inside 
nearly glabrous ; segments of the upper lip unilaterally broad-scarious ; lobes 
of the lower lip very short, not membranously expanded; anthers blunt; style 
nearly glabrous ; indusium except the orifice not conspicuously bearded ; capsule 
small, globular-ovate, somewhat protruding beyond the calyx, septate only at 
the base ; seeds 3-5 ripening, comparatively large, nearly flat, grey-brownish, 
surrounded by an exceedingly narrow not membranous margin. 
On the Alligator-River ; Moritz Holtze. The specimens obtained 6-9 inches 
high. Radical leaves obviously narrowed into a stalk, but soon perishing. 
Stems several from a somewhat cylindric probably perennial root, erect in their 
lower portion, amply spreading into innumerable almost divaricate branchlets. 
Calyces only about inch long. Corolla scarcely more than f inch in length; 
only narrow vestiges of membranous expansions on the lobes. Style shorter 
than the corolla. Fruit not fully J inch long. Seeds ovate, about half as long 
as the fruit-valves. 
This species introduces quite a new feature into the genus, its intricate 
ramification being much like that of Leschenaultia divaricata, Trachymene 
ramosissima and Corynotheca dichotoma. Systematic affinity brings our new 
plant nearest to G-. micropteza, from which (like from all other congeners) it 
differs widely in habit, besides in the remarkable reduction of the leaves, in 
inflorescence, almost glabrous style, nearly obliterated septum of the capsule and 
seeds not broadly margined. From G. Armitiana it is still further removed, 
although in that plant the fruit-septum remains likewise almost undeveloped. 
Like other species of the genus Goodenia, this one also shares in the tonic 
bitterness, to which for therapeutic purposes I drew public attention already 
in a departmental report, presented to the Legislative Council in 1853, when 
also many other plants of Australia became for the first time recorded as 
medicinal. 
