THE COLONY OF VICTORIA. 
41 
Cruciferx.\ 
triangular lobes; stem-leaves generally few, occasionally rather numerous, mostly short-stalked, frequently 
smaller than the rest and more minutely toothed. Pedicels when in flower rather corymbose and 1-3 lines 
long, when in fruit racemose and 3-6 lines long, rarely shorter. Sepals ovate, 1-11 line long, downy; the 
two lateral ones gibbose at the base. Petals obovate, attenuated into a more or less elongated claw. Stamens 
six, tetradynamous, somewhat longer than the calyx. Filaments linear-subulate, often considerably dilated 
towards the base. Anthers cordate-ovate, yellow, line long. Pollen-grains ellipsoid, bursting longitu¬ 
dinally, when moistened spheroid. Silique patent or ascendent, covered with short mostly simple spreading 
somewhat rigid hair, 3-6 lines long, 1-1 j line broad, slightly curved, turgid, gradually pointed into the base 
and apex, rarely in what seems a variety of this species very short-downy. Fruit-style line long, 
glabrous. United stigmas almost hemispherical. Valves sometimes more chartaceous, sometimes more 
membranous, faintly one-nerved particularly below the middle. Seeds forming an irregular single or double 
row, occasionally only 1-2 in each cell, pale-brown, ovate, turgid, hardly longer than \ line, ejecting when 
wet a copious radiating mucilage from the testa. 
Flowers chiefly during the spring. 
Plate II. 1, 2, hair; 3, flower; 4, sepals; 5, petals; 6, stamens and pistil; 7, pollen-grains, dry; 
8, pollen-grains, moistened; 9, silique; 10, longitudinal section of silique, showing septum, funicles and 
arrangement of seeds; 11, seed, dry; 12, seed, moistened, surrounded by mucus; 13, transverse section of 
seed; 14, embryo, illustrated with accumbent instead of incumbent cotyledons : all figures more or less 
magnified. 
From this and the following species the typical Blennodia canescens may be easily distinguished by 
longer sepals, measuring about 2| lines, and by longer linear-cylindrical siliques, with probably in each cell 
uniseriate seeds, crowned by a large almost sessile stigma. B. canescens, according to specimens from 
Cooper’s Creek and from near Lake Torrens, is annual, not suffruticose. I had no opportunity to examine 
its ripe fruit for comparison. 
Blennodia brevipes, F. M. in Transact. Phil . Soc. Viet. i. p. 100 ( adnot.); Erysimum brevipes, 
F. M. in Linncea , 1852, 365. 
Leaves broad- or rhomboid-lanceolate, the lower ones lyrate-pinnatifid or laciniate, the upper ones 
toothed; petals white, exceeding in length hardly the minute calyx; silique short, narrow, lanceolate- 
cylindrical, four to six times longer than the stout scarcely spreading pedicel, short-downy, terminated by a 
very short style and a minute stigma; valves indistinctly one-nerved; seeds few in each cell, narrower than 
the lanceolate septum. 
In barren sandy localities on the Murray River and its lower tributaries; also N.W. of Lake Torrens, 
and on the Rocky River in South Australia. 
Stems fistulose, branched, terete, 1-2 feet high. Radical leaves quickly emarcescent; lower stem-leaves 
1-2 inches long, tapering into a moderately long petiole; the lobes triangular or semi-lanceolate, sometimes 
in front again toothed. Upper stem-leaves sliort-stalked, 1 inch and less long, generally sharp-toothed, 
short-stalked or the uppermost sessile. Flower-bearing pedicels crowded, very short; fruit-bearing ones 
stout, slightly spreading, 1-1J line long. Sepals oblong, downy outside,' scarcely 1 line long. Petals 
oblong-spathulate, tapering into a claw. Filaments about 1 line long, capillary, dilated gradually at the 
base. Anthers yellow, nearly ovate, only ^ line long*. Siliques almost erect, turgid, 6-9 lines long, 
- attenuated gradually into the base and apex. United stigmas depressed. Valves faintly one-nerved, par¬ 
ticularly below the middle. Seeds nearly § line long, roundish-ovate, turgid, brown, smooth, disposed in a 
single or double irregular row in each cell, emitting when moistened largely a turbid mucilage, which 
inspected under the microscope is beautifully radiated. Funicles dilated at the base. Radicle exactly dorsal 
or sometimes more lateral. 
This plant is more robust than either the preceding one or the following. It bears flowers in the spring. 
F 
