THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
55 
Proseracew.] 
Tender, sometimes veiy elegant, cosmopolitan herbs; leaves generally entire, seldom cleft into 
segments, beneath very seldom in every part glabrous, above hairy, at the margin fringed ; their hair 
and cilise exuding a dew-like fluid. Peduncle one-flowered, or bearing 1 or more minutely and 
irregularly bracteate racemes. Pedicels solitary. Petals tender, white or pink, less commonly yellow, 
bright red or purple.— Endl. Gen. 907. 
More than half the know species of Drosera are of exclusively Australian origin, none, however, 
is peculiar to the Colony of Victoria, neither any to Tasmania, whilst in New Zealand only the alpine 
j) stenopetala, which may possibly occur also in our and the Tasmanian Alps, is known to be restricted 
to that island. Professor Planchon, in his monography of this genus, divided it exquisitely into 
sections. Since, however, only about one-eighth of the species occur in the territory of this colony, 
the introduction of the sectional characters into this work was deemed unnecessary. The genus 
Sondera is justly reunited by Planchon to Drosera. No other genus of this order, except Byblis, is 
known to exist in Australia. It is recognized by blue flowers, versatile anthers, which open by pores, 
further by the coalescence of two styles into one, by a two-valved and two-celled capsule and by axil 
placentae. The species of Byblis, very few in number, are restricted to Western and Northern Australia, 
It is, however, not improbable, since many Indian water-plants extend in their geographic range to 
tropical Australia, that Aldrovanda may yet be found in the warmer parts of this continent. Finally, 
it may be worthy of remark, that the lobes of the styles in some species of Drosera are longitudinally, 
in others only at the apex stigmatose. Hence they may in some cases be regarded entirely as parts 
of the stigma, their color being moreover generally different from that of the basal part of the style. 
Drosera g'landulig'era, Lehmann , Pugill. viii. 37; Plant. Preissian. i. 252. 
Minute, stemless; root annual, fibrous; leaves rosulate, without stipules; petioles linear, about as 
long as the concave reniform-roundish not peltate lamina, as well as peduncles and racemes glandulously 
downy; pedicels about as long as or somewhat longer than the ovate or lanceolate fimbriate sepals; petals 
crimson; stamens 5, hypogynous; filaments clavate-linear; styles 3, very short, terminated by a compara¬ 
tively long deeply-bipartite stigma; segments of stigma acute, filiform, undivided or bifid; capsule to the 
base three-valved, many-seeded; placentae nearly ovate; seeds ovate-globose, minutely attenuated at the 
base; testa close, reticulated. 
Scattered over the colony, in less fertile pasture land; for instance, at Hobson’s Bay, along the lower 
Yarra Yarra ridges, in the Grampians, near the Glenelg River, Port Albert, Ac.; also in various parts of the 
Colony of South Australia (viz., near Adelaide, at Lyndock Valley, the Barossa Range, Bugle Range, Mount 
Burr, Ac.), and in Western Australia; perhaps also yet to be found in Tasmania. 
A minute herb, from 1-3 inches high. Root a fascicle of tender fibres. Leaves expanded into a 
radical rosette; their petiole linear; their lamina tapering somewhat into the petiole, 2-3 lines long, 3-4 
lines broad, above downy with short gland-bearing hair, beneath glabrous, at the margin long-ciliated. 
Peduncles 1 or a few, terminated by a raceme of few or several flowers. Pedicels 1—3 lines long", recurved 
in age. Sepals of flowers hardly longer than 1 line, of fruit about 1.1 line long, glandulously-downy outside, 
fimbriate at the margin, spreading in age. Petals bright-red, but dark-red towards the base, obovate- 
cuneate, hardly half exserted. Filaments nearly 1 line long, very acutely tapering at the base. Anthers 
extremely minute; their cells divergent, yellow, nearly globose. Styles dark-red, very spreading. Lobes of 
stigma ascending-incurved, pale-red and pellucid, very minutely papillous. Germen globose, green, smooth. 
Capsule hardly longer than 1-1J line, globose, many-seeded. Placentae considerably smaller than the valves, 
flat, indistinctly ovate. Seeds grey-black, about J fine long. 
In flower during August and September. 
