Cruciferce.\ 
THE COLONY OE VICTOHIA. 
49 
The exclusively West-Australian genus Menkea (Lehmann, Hort. Hamb. 1843; Hook. Icon. 
Plant, t. 610 and 617) differs from Stenopetalum in blunt petals, flat silicles, which by obliteration of 
the septum are one-celled, in more numerous rough seeds, held by long funicles. Camelina, to which 
Stenopetalum is still more closely allied, differs only in habit, in clasping leaves, in its equality of the 
sepals, in blunt petals, and in the very distinct development of a style. 
Stenopetalum lineare, M. JBr . in Cand. Syst . ii. 513; Endl . Plant. Hueg. 4; Hook . Icon. t. 
618; J. Hook. Flor. Tasman, i. 22. 
Glabrous, rarely pubescent; leaves linear, or occasionally lanceolate, undivided or remotely toothed or 
pinnatifid or pinnatisected; pedicels shorter than the sepals; petals fulvous, less than half exserted, gradually 
dilated towards the middle; their unguis and their acumen about as long as the lamina; silicic ellipsoid - 
cylindrical, erect, nearly twice or thrice as long as the not spreading pedicel; valves distinctly one-nerved; 
septum linear-elliptical; moistened testa scantily mucilaginous. 
On the sandy and rocky shores of Port Phillip and Wilson’s Promontory, in the desert on the Murray 
River, and in sandy localities near Mount Mclvor, To be found also in South Australia, as far north as 
Lake Torrens, and in Western Australia, and in a few localities of Tasmania and New South Wales. 
Stems erect, sometimes diffused, rarely on coast-cliffs quite procumbent, terete, nearly glabrous, or 
scantily in rare instances densely covered with short more or less branched downs, from a few inches to fully 
2 feet high, sometimes in meager specimens capillary-filiform, in large specimens more rigid and robust. 
Root annual, flexuose, often simple, filiform, sometimes, however, stout, several inches long, tortuous, sending 
out lateral fibres and being possibly biennial if not even perennial. Leaves §-3 inches long, J-G fines rarely 
1 inch broad, sometimes rather numerous, sometimes distant, always carnulent; the upper or all stem-leaves 
broad- or narrow-linear, much less frequently lanceolate, grossly few-toothed or particularly the lower ones 
or rarely all to various depths pinnately cleft, gTadually tapering into a narrow petiolar base, all over glabrous 
or nearly so, but like other parts of the plant in the young state often densely downy; lobes linear, oblong or 
even lanceolate. Radical leaves very early perishing. Racemes spike-like, consisting of few, several, or 
many flowers. Pedicels stout, when flower-bearing A-l fine long, when fruit-bearing- not much longer, 
angular, at that period rather remote. Sepals very unequal at the base, l|-2 fines long, blunt, oblong-linear, 
coherent except at the base and apex, finely three-nerved, towards the summit veined, membranous. Petals 
to about one-third or nearly one-half of their length exserted, 3-4 fines long, about J fine broad towards the 
lanceolate middle, sordidly fulvous, tapering gradually into a long unguis and a sometimes still longer 
linear-setaceous acumen, generally more acute and narrower than in the Hookerian illustration. Stamens 6, 
tetradynamous. Filaments capillary-linear, 1-1J fine long. Anthers oblong, with cordate base, yellow, 
fine long. Silique or silicle slightly or scarcely compressed, 2|-3| fines long, terminated by a small 
subsessile convex stigma. Valves oblong or oval-oblong, concave-convex, with a distinctly expressed mid- 
nerve and two veiy faint or obliterated side-nerves. Septum fined in the middle with a very narrow 
longitudinal fold. Funicles very short, filiform. Ovules from 9 to 20 in each cell, all or partially developed 
to seeds, biseriate. Seeds smooth, ovate, rather turgid, fulvous, about J fine long, when thrown into cold 
water emitting hardly any mucilage; subjected to the action of tepid water evolving rather scantily a hyaline 
homogenous mucus. 
In flower chiefly during the early spring time, in favorable localities throughout the year. 
Stenopetalum gracile (Bunge, in Lelirn. PI. Preiss.) differs principally in white petals of longer dimen¬ 
sions, in spreading fruit-pedicels, and in obovate or roundish silicles with few r er seeds. 
Stenopetalum velutinum, F. M. 
Almost velvet-downy ; leaves linear, undivided; pedicels as long as the sepals; petals more than half 
exserted , sordid-yellow, gradually and slightly dilated near the middle, tapering into a very long acumen; 
G 
