THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
73 
Pittosporece .] 
Annul, of Nat. Hist. iv. 109; P. angustifolium, Lodd. Bot. Cabin, t. 1859; P. salicinum, Lindl. in Mitch. 
Prop. Austr. 97. 
Branclilets slender, generally dependent or cernuous; leaves glabrous , broad - or lanceolate- or falcate - 
linear, pointed into an uncinate apex, indistinctly reined, scarcely paler beneath, perfectly entire, flat, 
tapering into the petiole; pedicels axillary, lateral and terminal, solitary or forming few-flowered umbels; 
sepals free, membranous, subovate, several times shorter than the smooth yellow oblong-spathulate long- 
coherent petals; anthers cordate-oblong*, scarcely half as long* as the filaments; ovary imperfectly downy; 
capsules considerably compressed, bony, yellowish , ovate- or cordate-roundish or quite ovate, 2- rarely 
3-valved; funides very short; seeds few or several, dark- or orange-red, angular, ovate-globose. 
On sandy or barren stony declivities and plains, chiefly with limestone subsoil, dispersed through the 
desert from the Murray River to South-Western Australia, to the Murchison River, to Sturt’s and Hooker’s 
Creek, to the Burdekin and Darling River and their tributaries. 
A small, exceedingly graceful tree or slender shrub, resembling inhabit and foliage more Eremophila 
bignoniflora, Myoporum Cunninghami or some pliyllodineous Acaciee than its congeners, of bitter taste in all 
its parts. Bark of the trank sordidly brownish-black, rimose and wrinkled; that of the branches grey and 
smooth. Branches erect or ascendent. Branclilets terete, flexible, bent more or less downward, generally 
except in very early age smooth, sometimes, however, densely grey-downy. Leaves scattered, not much 
crowded on the extremities of the branclilets, when well developed 2-5 inches long, and as many lines broad, 
occasionally, however, of greater and lesser dimensions; the margin rarely in age reflexed; the middle nerve 
never very prominent. Pedicels 2-10 lines long, forming not rarely along the branches an interrupted more 
or less leafy raceme. Bracts minute, almost ovate, slightly fringed, fast dropping*. Bracteoles, if present, 
fixed near the middle of the pedicel, lanceolate or linear-subulate, 1-2 lines long. Flowers veiy fragrant. 
Sepals yellowish, 1-11 line long, either slightly acuminate or rather blunt, in age reflexed. Petals 3-5 
lines long, to about the middle connected into a broad tube, reflexed towards the summit. Stamens little 
protruding beyond the tube. Filaments linear-filiform. Anthers f-1 line long, golden-yellow. Style of 1 
line length or shorter. Stigma peltate, slightly emarginate. Capsules of an unpleasant odor, outward 
sordidly orange, inward bright yellow or vitellinous, 5-8 lines long, tardily dehiscent. Septum evanescent 
above the middle of the valve, foiming a low ridge below. Seeds 1J-2 lines long, sometimes only very few 
or even a solitary one developed in the cell. 
This tree exudes in the warmer season rather copiously a transparent pale insipid gum. Cattle are 
fond of the leaves. Water extracts the bitter principle of the plant. Alcohol dissolves'the resinous-viscid 
covering of the seeds, forming thereby a yellow tincture. 
In flower during the spring*. 
Our collections establish as well-marked additional Australian species of this genus only the following, 
P. revolutum, P. rhombifolium, P. melanospeimum and P. ovatifolium, the two latter to be further compared, 
when their flowers are known, with some Asiatic species. P. parvifloram, of South-Western Australia, may 
possibly not belong to this genus. P. flavum constitutes the genus Hymenosporum. 
BURSARIA. 
Cavan. Icon . et Descr . PI. iv. 30, t. 350. 
Sepals free. Petals equal, divergent, not unguiculate. Stamens unconnected. Anther-cells 
bursting lengthwise. Style short, filiform. Stigma extremely minute, hardly lobed. Capsules much 
compressed , short-stalked, thin-parchmentous, two-celled, exceptionally three-celled, with terminal 
loculicidal dehiscence. Septum exceedingly narrow. Seeds 1-3, vertical in each cell, flat , surrounded 
by a very narrow border, wingless, dry, smooth. 
K 
