50 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
rmtercB. 
silique broad ovate-ellipsoid, very turgid, erect, hardly as long or somewhat shorter than the almost erect 
pedicel ; valves indistinctly one-nerved; septum oval. 
In barren localities on the River Murray, rare. 
An erect, probably annual plant, about 1J foot high, covered on its stem and older leaves more scantily, 
on its branches, foliage, pedicels and sepals more densely with an ashy velvet of branched short intricate 
hair. Leaves comparatively numerous, extending to the raceme; the lower ones broad-linear, 1-2 inches 
long, 1-2 lines broad; upper leaves from a few lines to less than 1 inch long, scarcely 1 line broad. Racemes 
terminating the branches, producing several or many at first crowded flowers. Flower-pedicels li-2 lines 
long; fruit-pedicels about twice as long, little spreading. Sepals li-2 lines long, towards the middle part 
at their margin coherent, not very unequal at the base, linear-oblong, inside glabrous. Petals 5-7 lines Ion* 
very narrow, gradually tapering as well into the base as into the apex. Stamens 6. Filaments white li-2 
lines long, linear-capillary. Anthers oblong, with bilobed base, yellow, about h line long, with introrse 
dehiscence. Pollen-grains ellipsoid, bursting longitudinally. Germen glabrous. Stigmas united into a 
solitary almost hemispherical one, of rather considerable size. Silicles in not quite mature state about 21 
lines long-, 1J line broad; their valvular diameter at least quite as broad as the septal one. Valves with a very 
faint or obliterated nex-ve. Septum fenestrate. Funicles short, filiform. Ovules 10-14. Ripe seeds as yet 
unknown. 
This plant stands evidently in near affinity to Stenopetalum robustum (Endl. PI. Hueg. 4; Hook. Icon. 
620; S. croceum and minus, Bunge, in Lehm. PI. Preiss. i. 258), which differs in being glabrous, and in 
more or less drooping rounder silicles. This latter plant ranges, according to Mr. Oldfield’s collections, 
northward near to Shark Bay, and produces varieties with elongated pedicels and intensively orange flowers. 
In flower during the spi-ing. 
Stenopetalum spliserocarpum, F. M. in Transact. Phil. Soc. Viet. i. 35. 
Glabrous; stems very slender; leaves distant, linear or deeply three-cleft; petals white, about half 
exserted, rather suddenly dilated towards the middle; pedicels deflexed, nearly as long as or a little longer 
than the fruit; silicle spherical, drooping ; valves almost nerveless; septum orbicular; moistened testa 
copiously turbid-mucilaginous. 
In sterile, chiefly humid sandy places on the Murray River. In South Australia near Lake Alex- 
andrina, the Barossa Ranges, Crystal Brook, and Spencei-’s Gulf. 
An herb of the appearance of Menkea procumbens. Hook., (Stenopetalum procumbens, Hook. Icon. 
610). Stems from a few inches to a span long, procumbent, ascendent or erect, simple or few-branched, 
slender- or capillary-filiform, arising singly or several from a thin filiform annual root, which produces a few 
almost capillary fibres. Leaves few, J-l inch long, linear, or trisected with linear lobes. Flower-bearing 
pedicels scarcely longer than 1 fine, fruit-bearing ones slender-filifoxm, U-2 rarely 3 fines long, slightly 
angular. Sepals oblong, measuring little more than 1 line, membranous, with exception of the very tender 
margin finely veined. Petals tapering into a very narrow unguis and into a linear-setaceous acumen, dilated 
towards the middle. Stamens 6; the four longer ones of about the length of the calyx. Filaments linear¬ 
capillary, white. Anthers yellow, about \ line long. Stigma minute, depressed. Silicle scarcely or slightly 
compressed, about 11 line long. Valves faintly veined. Funicles capillary, rather short. Ovules never very 
numeious. Seeds ~—8 in each cell, forming two not very regular rows, fulvous, opaque, smooth, from t to 
nearly J line long, moderately compressed, broad-ovate, yielding already by maceration a large quantity of 
tenacious mucus. 
. . S "I )ec * es * s distinguished from tlie small decumbent forms of St. gracile in smaller compara¬ 
tive y less exserted petals, more turgid seemingly never ovate silicles, which are deprived of a manifest style, 
bt. gracile extends also far northwards in Western Australia. 
In flower from August to October. 
