Anisacantlia .] 
CL CHENOPODIACL^. 
1250 
in a column usually persistent and hardened. Fruit enclosed in the perianth, 
usually ovoid. Pericarp membranous. Seed vertical, somewhat compressed ; 
testa membranous ; embryo annular or nearly so, surrounding a mealy albumen, 
the radicle erect. — Intricately branched shrubs or diffuse undershrubs, glabrous 
or very rarely villous, especially the young shoots. Leaves linear, alternate, 
sessile. Flowers solitary in the axils. Fruiting perianths closely sessile and 
often almost adnate at the base to the stem and to the subtending leaf. 
Bracts none. 
The genus is limited to Australia. 
Leaves linear or linear-lanceolate, Hat, contracted at the base. Perianth- 
spines 5 or 4, one often very small 1. A. muricata. 
Leaves obovate or oblong-lanceolate. Perianth-spines 5 2. A. Bircliii. 
Leaves linear-terete or semiterete. 
Perianth-spines 3 rarely 4, one sometimes very small, 
blnubby. Perianth above 1 line long. 
Smallest spine above 1 line long 3. A. divaricate! . 
Smallest spine reflexed to a tubercle or rarely nearly 1 line long . . 4. A. bicuspis. 
Perianth-spines 5, short. Small diffuse undershrub. Perianth under 
1 line long b. A. ec/iinopsila. 
1. A. muricata (muricate), Moq. Clienop. Enam. 84, and in DC. Prod. 
xiii. ii. 122; Bcnth. FI. Austr. v. 190. Boley-poley. A broad bushy or 
spreading shrub of 2 or 3ft., with numerous intricate flexuose branches, the 
typical form quite glabrous and somewhat glaucous, or the young shoots slightly 
villous. Leaves linear, flat but rather thick, mucronate-acute, contracted at the 
base, from scarcely above Jin. to nearly lin. long. Fruiting perianth adnate by 
an oblique base, the hard tube rarely above 1 line long, the membranous lobes 
short, the dorsal spines 4 or 5, very unequal and spreading, the longest 3 to 6 
lines long, the smallest very short, and often the 2 smallest united at the base. — - 
A. quinquecuspis, F. v. M. in Trans. Viet. Inst. 1855, 134, and in Hook. Kew. 
.Journ. viii. 204. 
Hab.: Annadilla, IF. Barton; inland Downs country. 
Var. v illusa. The whole plant, at least in young specimens, softly villous. — A. gracilicuspis, 
F. v. M. Fragm. ii. 170. — Mackenzie Downs, F. v. Mueller. 
2. A. Birchii (after C. W. de B. -Birch), F. v. M. Frarpn. viii. 163. The whole 
plant clothed in a white tomentum. Leaves obovate or oblong-lanceolate, 3 to 
5 lines long, cuneate at the base. Flowers axillary and sessile, spines 5', seta- 
ceous, subulate, 2 longer than the others. Style very short ; stigmas 2, capillary, 
setaceous. 
Hab.: Bowen Downs, C. IF. de Burgh-Birch, F. v. Mueller ; Muckadilla, Mrs. Geo. 
Trenouth ; St. George, J. Wedd. 
3. A. divaricata (spreading), R. I3r. Prod. 410; Benth. FI. Austr. v. 200. 
A diffuse or divaricately branched shrub, glabrous and somewhat glaucous like 
A. muricata, but usually more compact and more densely beset with the prickles 
of the perianths. Leaves linear-terete, mucronate-acute, often above Jin. long. 
Fruiting perianth closely sessile with a broad oblique base, 1 to 1J line long, 
with 3 or 4 very unequal divaricate spines, rather finer than in A. muricata, the 
longest often Jin. long, but sometimes none above Jin., the smallest only 1 to 2 
lines, the fourth when present very slender and small ; lobes of the perianth 
usually erect, connivent, minutely ciliate. — F. v. M. Ic. Sal. PI. 77 ; A crinacea, 
Moq. in DC. Prod. xiii. ii. 122 ; A. tricuspis, F. v. M. in Trans. Viet. Inst. 
1855, 133, and in Hook, and Kew Journ. viii. 204. 
Hab.: Suttor River, F. v. Mueller, Bowman; Bokhara Creek, Leichhardt; Darling Downs, 
Lau. 
4. A. bicuspis (2-pointed), F. v. J/. in Trans. Viet. Inst. 1855, 133, ami in 
Ilook. Ketc. Journ. viii. 204; Bcnth. FI. Austr. v. 200. A rigid stout but com- 
pactly branched shrub or undershrub, frequently not above Gin. high 
