582 
LI. MYRTACE^. 
[Thryptomene. 
ovate, very deciduous. Calyx-tube scarcely £ line long, the flowers otherwise as in T. oliyandra. 
Hab.: Barren places, Gilbert River, Gulf of Carpentaria, V. v. Mueller. The foliage, like that of 
some Epacridece, and the very small flowers, seem almost sufficient to characterise a distinct 
species. — Benth. 
7. MICROMYRTUS, Benth. 
(A small Myrtle.) 
Calyx-tube cylindrical or turbinate, 5 or 10-ribbed ; lobes small, petal-like or 
scarious, persistent, sometimes reduced to a narrow or scarcely distinguishable 
border. Petals 5, obovate or orbicular, deciduous or rarely persistent and spread- 
ing. Stamens 5 opposite the petals, or 10, those opposite the sepals inserted 
usually within the margin of the disk ; anther-cells distinct, almost globular, 
opening in parallel divergent or divaricate slits. Ovary adnate, 1 -celled ; style 
short, filiform, glabrous, with a capitate stigma ; ovules 2, or rarely 4 to 8, 
collaterally attached at or near the summit of a filiform placenta extending from 
the base to the top of the cavity. Fruit enclosed in the hardened scarcely 
enlarged calyx-tube and crowned by the limb, indehiscent. Seed solitary, filling 
the fruit ; testa thin ; embryo of the shape of the seed, consisting chiefly of the 
thick fleshy clavate radicular portion with a short slender neck turned up against 
one side, and rather deeply divided into 2 linear cotyledons. — Glabrous shrubs, 
with the habit of the small-leaved or more slender species of Bceckea. Leaves 
opposite, small, entire. Flowers small, white or pink, solitary and shortly 
pedicellate or almost sessile in the axils of the leaves. Bracteoles 2, scarious, 
close under the calyx, often enclosing the bud, but very deciduous. 
The genus is limited to Australia. It is nearly allied to Thryptomene, but differs essentially in 
the ovules and in the placentation, and in most cases in the very deciduous petals. The stamens 
also, when 5, are opposite the petals, not alternate with them, and the fruit never appears to 
have the hardened endocarp observable in many species of Thryptomene. — Benth. 
Stamens 5. Petals often persistent. Ovules 2, 4, or more. 
Calyx-tube ovate-turbinate, not exceeding 1 line. Ovules 4 1. M. microphylla. 
Calyx-tube narrow, exceeding 1 line. Ovules 6 to 8 2. M. leptocalyx. 
1. IVT. microphylla (small-leaved), Benth. FI. Austr. iii. 65. Erect or 
diffuse and much-branched. Leaves usually obovate-triquetrous, rather thick, 
very obtuse, and under 1 line long, but sometimes passing from that to nearly 
linear, semiterete and nearly 2 lines long, decussate on the smaller branches, the 
upper ones sometimes minutely dentate-cil'ate. Flowers nearly sessile in the 
upper axils, usually forming numerous little almost corymbose leafy racemes on 
the smaller branches. Bracteoles short, concave, keeled. Calyx-tube ovoid- 
turbinate, prominently 5-ribbed, about 1 line long ; lobes orbicular, scarious, £ to 
f line long. Petals orbicular, spreading, deciduous or sometimes persistent, 
about 1 line diameter. Stamens 5, opposite the petals ; filaments filiform, rather 
thick ; anther-cells parallel, opening longitudinally ; connective tipped with 1 or 
2 globular glands, rarely both wanting. Ovules 4, suspended in pairs from the 
top of the cavity. Embryo with the slender portion half as long as the thick 
radicular end and deeply 2-lobed. — Imbricaria ciliata, Sm. in Trans. Linn. Soc. 
iii. 259 ; Stereoxylon eiliatum, Poir. Diet. Suppl. v. 247 ; Escallonia ciliata, Roem. 
and Sehult. Syst. v. 329 ; Bceckea microphylla, Sieb. in Spreng. Syst. Cur. Post. 
149, DC. Prod. iii. 230, F. v. M. Fragm. i. 30; B. plicata, F. v. M. Fragtn. i. 30; 
Thryptomene plicata, F. v. M. Fragm. iv. 63. 
Hab.: Many southern localities. 
2. 1VI. leptocalyx (calyx slender), Benth. FI. Austr. iii. 65. A bushy 
shrub, attaining about 6ft. Leaves linear-triquetrous, decussate and imbricate 
on the smaller branches as in 3/. microphylla, but rather longer. Flowers larger 
than in that species, on pedicels either exceedingly short or sometimes attaining 
