Vinifera.] 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
93 
spikes, with several or numerous unilateral flowers. Pedicels short or none. Calyx hardly 1 line long, 
with deltoid-semiovate or semilanceolate lobes. Petals 2-21 lines long - , ovate-spathulate, narrowed at the 
base, yet not exactly unguiculate, glabrous or imperfectly silky at the back; the apex producing sometimes a 
short appendage beyond the inflexed margin. Filaments 1—2 lines long - , glabrous, of whitish color. Anthers 
versatile, yellow, dorsifixed, J-g line long - , subovate, bilobed at the base, emarginate at the apex. Pollen- 
grains smooth, ellipsoid, bursting longitudinally. Stigmas | or J line long, not divergent. Ovary, silky, 
ovate-conical. Pericarp juicy, of a sweetish yet somewhat salty* taste, outside dark-purple or dull-red or 
yellow, measuring - h to nearly 1 inch, before drying ellipsoid-ovate. Putamen 4-6 lines long - , ellipsoid, 
tapering and pointed at the apex, grooved with irregular deep large impressions particularly below the 
middle; three outer semilanceolate-subulate valves free or below adnate, alternate with three narrow subulate 
ones, which cohere at the apex; three inner valves semilanceolate, separated half downward, alternate with 
the broader outer valves, finally to one-third of their length cleft into two pungent points, lined at the back 
with an adnate thread, which is the continuation of the opposite narrow outer valves. Seed filling the cavity* 
of the fruit. Embryo yellow. Cotyledons twice as long as the radicle. 
In flower towards the end of spring. 
Supplemental Plate YII. 1, 2, flowers; 3, calyx with pistil after the lapse of stamens and petals; 
4, back -view of petal; 5, front view of petal; 6, back view of stamen; 7, front view of stamen; 8, pollen- 
grains dry*; 9, pollen-grains moist; 10, transverse section of ovary*; 11, side view of putamen; 12, vertical 
view of putamen; 13, putamen with some valves forcibly* bent; 14, narrower outer valve; 15, broader outer 
valve; 16, inner valves; 17, outer and inner valves; 18, vertical section of fruit; 19, transverse section 
of fruit; 20, 21, seeds; 22, 23, embryo: all figures, -with exception ofi 11 and 12, are to a varied extent 
magnified. 
It is yet an unsolved question, whether the Australian Nitraria is distinct from N. Schceberi, to which 
it evidently* bears the closest resemblance. The diagnosis of most of the species hitherto published should be 
founded on other than those untenable characters, which have been adopted. Ey*re (Expeditions of Discovery*, 
ii. 271) noticed already the value of Nitraria as a fruit plant to the natives. 
Order VINIFEEiE. 
Juss. in Mem. du Museum dMIist. Natur. iii. 444. 
Flowers symmetrical. Calyx monophyllous, entire or toothed, persistent. Petals 
4-5, rarely 6, inserted on the outer side of a basal disk, alternate with the teeth of 
the calyx, free, or at the apex rarely at the base coherent, valvate in sestivation, deci¬ 
duous. Stamens singly opposite to the petals. Filaments free. Anthers two-celled, 
versatile, with longitudinal dehiscence, free, rarely connate. Ovary surrounded by a 
disk, two-celled, rarely 3-6-celled. Ovules 2, rarely 1, at the base of each cell, erect. 
Style short, undivided or undeveloped. Stigma simple or slightly lobed. Berry 1- or 
2-celled, rarely 3-6-celled. Seeds erect. Epidermis membranous. Testa bony. Undo- 
pleura generally plicate or wrinkled. Albumen fleshy, oily, including at the base a 
minute straight embryo with an inferior radicle. 
Shrubs, occasionally trees, rarely suffruticose plants, almost always climbing, 
with lim pid copious sap, indigenous to all intratropical and subtropical countries, 
inhabiting, within the temperate zone, North America, Middle Asia, South Africa, 
