40 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
Sept., 1925 
points. Tims, wiiile it could idse and crawl safely beneaib. 
its sliitdd. yet it could sit so close, and adhere so strongly, 
that tlie turbulent currents that dash down the hill sides, 
could not dislodge it from its base. It was ultimately 
found to be the larva of one of the Parnidae, a coleop- 
terous beetle. It may he seen sunning itself on rocks 
jutting from tlie water, and is covered by a silky pubes- 
cence. The photogra])h on the left shows the ventral 
side, and that on the right the dorsal aspect of the larvae. 
They ar(‘ magnified about five times. 
0 
A REPUTED BLUE-FLOWERING VARIETY OF 
PORTULACA BICOLOR. 
Portulaca bicolor is a small flt*shy tuberous-rooted 
plant, usually not more than tAVo or three inches higli, 
that oeeurs botJi inland and on the coast in Queensland 
and the Kortluwri Territory. In the original descri])tion 
(Ferd. voti Mueller, Fragm. Phytogr., Aust.,-1, 171), tlu' 
|>etals are described as 4 and yellow — “pctalis quatuor 
luties.'' in the “ ProciH'dings of the Linnean Soe. of 
X.S.W.. VoL Ml. p. 72M," Messrs. Maiden and Betehe de- 
scribe a variety, var. rosea, from JTovvell, N.S. Wales, in 
vvliich thf' t'olonr of the flowers is described as rose-pink, 
and tlie number of p(*tals five or six, mostly six. 
Mr. F. li. Ih'rney. of Harcarolli‘, near Jundali, West- 
ern Queensland, has I'eeently sent me .si)ecimens of a 
J*ortulaca. wliieh 1 am unable to separate from P. bi- 
colour. Tlie following, howt^vm', are Mr. BerneyX notes: 
“A small plant growing in a shady s]>ot in a gidya scrub, 
(‘ollected in Mareli, 11)21. 1 have never i)reviously come 
across it. It has a tuberous root, and bears a small five- 
]‘oiutcd, star-shaped floAver. jiale blue in colour.” 
It will be noted t liat Mr. Berney describes the colour 
of the flowers as pale blue; when they reached me, how- 
ev(*r. tliey had turned a deej) pink, and 1 tliought it pos- 
sible fliat Messrs. Maiden and Betehe had described their 
])1an1 from Siimilar specimens, wliieh may have turned 
fnnn blue to pink in transit. lloAvcver, Mr. Maiden in- 
forms me in a letter tliat plants of P. biclor, var. rosea, 
grown in Sydney Botanic Gar<lens, bore flowers of a 
icse-pink colour. 
Tt is probable that P. bicolor, like its garden con- 
gener (P. grandiflora) has stneral forms or varieties, 
oifferijig ciiieflv in tlie colours of their flowers. 
C. T. WHITE. 
