Tab. 6297. 
XANTHORRHCEA minor. 
Native of South-Western Australia and Tasmania. 
Nat. Ord. Junce^e. — Tribe Xerotide;e. 
Genus Xanthorrhcea, Smith ; ( Endl . Gen. Plant, p. 152). 
Xanthorrhcea minor ; pumila, acaulis, dense caespitosa, foliis suberectis e basi 
paullo dilatato filifonnibus triquetris superne lente convexis v. concavis 
subtus acute carinatis marginibus tenuissime erosis, scapis cum spicis foliis 
brevioribus, spica brevi cylindracea, bracteis anguste cymbiformibus dorso 
subapice pubescentibus, sepalis cliartaceis anguste obovato-oblongis sub- 
acutis dorso vix carinatis sub apice, puberulis, petalis paullo majoribus 
planiusculis membranaceis glabris. 
X. minor, Br. Proclr. 288; Kunth, Enum. PL vol. iv. p. 649; Hooh. f. FI. Tas- 
man. vol. ii. p. 59. F. Muell. Fragment. Pli7jtog. vol. iv. p. 112. Benth. FI. 
Austral, vol. vii. ined. 
This is the second species of this remarkable genus that 
has flowered at Kew, where three or four others are in culti- 
vation. In the structure of the flower it closely resembles 
j X. quadrangulata, figured at plate 6075, but differs wholly in 
habit, and in the leaves, which in that species are square on 
a transverse section. It is not an uncommon plant in the 
moist turfy and sandy moors of South Australia, Victoria, 
and Tasmania, where it covers extensive tracts of land. 
I am not at all sure but that two dwarf species of Xanthor- 
rhcea may be confounded under the one name of X. minor , and 
if so I am doubtful to which Brown’s name should be applied ; 
one, that here figured, has a nearly flat or concave upper 
surface to the very slender suberect leaves ; the other, a 
much more robust plant, with longer stouter scapes, has larger 
and more spreading leaves, and more convex upper surfaces 
than those of the first. We have native specimens (gathered by 
myself in company with Mr. Gunn) on Grass Tree Hill, near 
Hobarton, and others from Victoria ; whilst the much larger 
form abounds near York Town, Tasmania, where, according 
to Gunn, it covers hundreds of acres, to the exclusion of 
almost every other plant. In December, 1841, Mr. Gunn 
describes the country as being white with it, one plant pro- 
MAY 1st, 1877. 
