LXXXV. CONVOLVULACE.E. 
1071 
8. POLYMERIA, R. Br. 
(Style-branches many.) 
Corolla very broadly campanulate, entire or angular. Ovary 2-celled, with 
1 ovule in each cell. Style filiform, with several (4 to 8) or very rarely only 
2 linear stigmatic lobes. Fruit a dry capsule with 1 or 2 seeds. — Erect prostrate 
or trailing herbs, rarely twining. Leaves usually entire. Peduncles axillary, 
bearing 1 to 8 flowers. Bracts very small. 
The genus is limited to Australia. Closely allied to Convolvulus in habit as well as in 
character, it differs in the ovules reduced to 2 (1 only in each cell of the ovary), whilst the 
stigmatic lobes, in all the Queensland species, are increased in number, probably by their 
division. Several of the species here enumerated run much one into the other, and they might 
all well be reduced to two or three. — Benth. 
Leaves linear or lanceolate. 
Leaves glabrous above, fringed with silky hairs. Flowers nearly lin. long, 
the sepals very unequal 1. P. marginata. 
Leaves silky or hoary or glabrous on both sides. Sepals nearly equal. 
Stigmatic lobes 6 to 8. Flowers about fin. long. Stems usually erect . 2. P. longifolia. 
Leaves cordate, ovate or oblong. 
Outer sepals orbicular-cordate, inner ones narrow 3. P. calijcina. 
Sepals nearly equal. 
Stem and leaves usually villous or pubescent. Sepals about 3 lines long 4. P. ambigua. 
Stem slender. Leaves small or linear, nearly glabrous. Sepals about 2 
lines loDg • 5. P. pusilla. 
1. P. marginata (margined), Benth. FI. Austr. iv. 432. Stems erect, 
under 1ft. high, loosely hirsute. Lower leaves petiolate, oblong, obtuse, deeply 
cordate, under 2in. long, upper ones nearly sessile, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 
acute, slightly cordate, 2 to 4in. long, all glabrous on both sides, except a few 
hairs on the veins underneath, but the margins elegantly fringed with rather 
long hairs. Peduncles shorter than the leaves, 1 -flowered, with linear bracts 
above the middle. Outer sepals broadly lanceolate, acute, 5 or even 6 lines long, 
the 2 innermost smaller and much narrower. Corolla nearly lin. long. 
Stigmatic lobes about 8. 
Hab.: Several inland localities. 
2. P. longifolia (long-leaved), Lindl. in Mitch. Trop. Austr. 398; Benth. FI- 
Austr. iv. 432. Stems from a perennial stock erect, slightly branched, usually 
about 1ft. high or shorter, pubescent or villous as well as the foliage with 
appressed silky hairs. Leaves almost sessile, linear or linear-lanceolate, 
mucronate-acute, minutely hastate at the base, often above 2in. long. Peduncles 
1-flowered, shorter than the leaves. Sepals oval-oblong, more or less acuminate 
or acute, about 3 lines long, all nearly equal. Corolla pink, usually about fin. 
long, but sometimes smaller. Stigmatic lobes usually 6, but sometimes 7 or 8. 
Hab.: Near the Gwydir, Mitchell; plains of the Condamine. Leichhardt; Suttor, Isaacs, 
Bowen Rivers, &c., Bowman; Flinders ltiver, Sutherland ; Armadilla, Barton. 
3. P. calycina (calyx large), R. Br. Prod. 488 ; Benth. bl. Austr. iv. 433. 
A glabrous or slightly pubescent annual (or sometimes with a perennial creeping 
rootstock ?). Stems slender, prostrate or creeping. Leaves on slender petioles, 
the lower ones ovate, obtuse or emarginate, deeply cordate, under lin. long, the 
upper ones oblong linear or lanceolate, obtuse, slightly cordate or rarely hastate 
at the base, often above lin. long. Peduncles slender, shorter than the leaves, 
1-flowered, with miuute bracts at or below the middle. Outer sepals very 
broadly ovate or cordate, about 3 lines long, the inner ones shorter, ovate- 
lanceolate or lanceolate, acuminate. Corolla 5 to 6 lines long, broadly 
