Sapindacex.] 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
89 
Z$odonsea hirtella, Miq. in Linncea , xviii. 94. 
Downy or almost glabrous, viscid; leaves pinnate ; racliis with dilated joints , producing leaflets to 
near the base; leaflets opposite in 3-7 pairs, oblique cuneate- or rhomboid-ovate, subcoriaceous, toothed from 
above the middle or at the apex, dotted, hardly recurved at the margin ; pedicels of the female flowers axillary 
and terminal, solitary, binate or ternate ; flowers dioecious ,* sepals ovate or lanceolate, acuminate; style 
slightly elongate \ capsule generally four-valved; valves seceding from the septa, winged from the summit to 
the base; wings blunt on both extremities, about as broad as the valves; septa dimidiate-orbicular; seeds 
opaque, very turgid towards the centre, suddenly compressed towards the margin; cotyledons not much 
longer than the radicle. 
On granite rocks of the hills and mountains between the Goulburn and Ovens Rivers. Found also on 
various granite ranges of New South Wales, as far north as the Maranoa River, where it was noticed by Sir 
Thos. Mitchell. 
A shrub generally of dense growth, varying in height from 2-5 feet, pervaded with strong somewhat 
balsamic odor, densely foliate. Branchlets almost cylindrical, more densely covered with short grey soft 
spreading downs, than the leaves, occasionally almost smooth. Leaves, with addition of the short petiolar 
base of the rachis, 1-2 inches long, Rachis either only about 1 line broad, and thus but slightly dilated 
along the interstices from leaflets to leaflets, or conspicuously widened, about 2 lines broad, the petiolar base 
becoming then cuneate; in rare instances confluent with the leaflets into an undivided wedge-shaped or 
irregularly few-lobed upwards dilated leaf, such leaves being mixed with normally pinnate ones. The apex 
of the rachis in most cases free of a terminal leaflet, protruding to the length of 1 or 2 lines beyond the 
uppermost pair of leaflets, or expanding occasionally into a rhomboid or wedge-shaped terminal leaflet, 
which often exceeds the rest in size. Lateral leaflets sessile, 2-6 lines long, always entire towards the base, 
generally deeply and bluntly toothed in front or to about the middle downward, seldom almost perfectly 
entire, sparingly downy or not hairy, slightly viscous or exuding so much clammy substance from their pores, 
which are particularly conspicuous beneath, as if they were varnished. Distribution of male flowers not yet 
ascertained. Pedicels of the female flowers either united on a short peduncle, or deprived of the latter, 2-8 
lines long, slender-filiform* thickened gradually towards the summit, spreading-downy, provided at the base 
with a short green canaliculate-linear deciduous bracteole. Sepals generally 4, about lb line long', membranous, 
somewhat downy, deciduous. Styles contorted into one, about 4 lines long, soon falling, at the stigmatose 
apex separated. Capsules membranous, sparingly downy, measuring, with the addition of the wings, 4-6 
lines. Wings about 1 line broad, very tender. Seeds brownish-black, measuring about 1 line across. Coty¬ 
ledons oblique-linear, gradually pointed, coiled up, centripetal, as broad as and hardly one-third longer than 
the cylindrical centrifugal radicle. The embryo in none of the seeds, examined on this occasion, was well 
developed 5 hence the singular form of the seeds may to some extent depend on this circumstance. 
The relative characters of D. pinnata (Smith in Rees’ Cycl. 7), D. Caleyana (Don, Gen. Syst. i. 674) and 
D. multijuga (Don, 1. c.) remain to be further, traced. D. boronifolia (Don, Gen. Syst. i. 674), as far as it can 
be recognized from description, seems not to differ from D. hirtella. 
In the desert on the Lower Murray, on Spencer’s Gulf and in various parts of South-Western Australia, 
occurs the D. humilis (Endl. Nov. Stirp. Decad. 33, Atakta tab. 31), a species not felicitously named, since 
it attains in favorable places a height of many feet. It will most likely be found yet in the north-western 
part of the Victorian territory, and may at once be recognized by its wingless capsule covered with very 
short gland-bearing bristles, by conspicuous filaments and by anthers terminated by stipitate glands. 
In reference to the fecundation of Dodonsese, the singular circumstance may be adduced, that the 
strictly female plants of D. hexandra, cultivated in the Botanic Garden at Melbourne, whilst male plants 
of this species are wanting, still produce fertile seeds, from which the genuine species, not hybrid productions, 
are raised. 
M 
