Zygopliyllece.\ 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
101 
membranous. Raphe adnate, rarely free. Albumen rather scanty. Embryo straight. Cotyledons 
plane-convex. Radicle short, superior. 
Herbs or half-shrubs or shrubs, known to occur at the Mediterranean Sea, throughout a great 
part of Africa, particularly the most southern regions, further in South-Western and Middle Asia, in 
Chili, Mexico and extratropical Australia, chiefly inhabitants of coast and deserts, often succulent 
and glabrous. Branches often semiterete, seldom spinescent. Stipules free or much more frequently 
either totally or partially connate into solitary interpetiolar ones. Leaves opjDOsite, consisting generally 
of a solitary pair, rarely of a few pair of leaflets, seldom reduced to a single leaflet. Petioles not 
rarely foliaceous-dilated, rarely obliterated, terminated by a small membranous seldom spinescent 
appendage. Pedicels imterpetiolar, ebracteolate, solitary or twin, rarely ternate or racemose. Sepals 
in age often reflexed. Petals very tender, ephemerous, yellow, rarely white or red or orange, some¬ 
times spotted at the base. Filaments frequently provided with an adnate scale. Sarcocarp more or 
less fleshy or succulent, sometimes thin. Seeds oblique ovate or ellipsoid.— Candolle ,, Prodr . i. 705 ; 
Zygophyllum et Roepera, A dr. de Juss . m Mdm. dn Mus. xii. 454-456, tab. 15 ; Endl. Gen . 1163 ; 
Sarcozygium, Bunge , m Linncea,, xvii. 7, 1. 1. 
Besides the species enumerated in the following pages, only two others are known as indigenous 
to this continent, viz., Z. Australasicum (Miq. in Lehm. PL Preiss. i. 165), which, according to its 
description, differs from all others in racemose flowers, and from most or all Australian congeners 
besides in being hirtellous-downy and having sessile leaves. The remaining species, Z. prismatothecum 
(F. M. in Linnsea, xxv. 375), is at once recognized from all other indigenous Australian kinds in having 
by the confluence of a pair of leaflets simple bilobed leaves. It may be sought in the Murray desert, 
since it accompanies the other Victorian species in the vicinity of Lake Torrens. 
Zygophyllum apiculatum, F. M. in Linncea , xxv. 373 ; Roepera latifolia, J . Hook . FI. Tasm. 
i. 60. 
Suffruticose, diffuse, glabrous; branches semiterete ; stipules interpetiolar, deltoid or semilanceolate ; 
leaflets geminate, about twice as long as the narrow-winged petiole, oblique broad-ovate, entire, somewhat 
fleshy; appendage at the apex of the leafstalk ovate- or subulate-lanceolate, nearly membranous; pedicels 
about as long as the flowers, generally geminate ; sepals 5, persistent, lanceolate-ovate, half or more than 
half as long as the corolla; lamina of petals yellow, spotless, broad-ovate or orbicular or nearly obcordate; 
stamens 10, about as long as the petals or shorter;, scale cuneate, half or more than half as long as the 
filaments, acutely bidentate at the apex; hypogynous disk repand, slightly velvety at the margin; style short; 
ovary glabrous; ovules 4-5 above the middle in each cell; capsules drooping , semiovate , acute-pentagonous , 
at the vertex truncate , at the apex of the angles dilated into a short Hunt appendage , otherwise wingless, 
with loculicidal dehiscence; seeds generally solitary in the cells; raphe adnate. 
On the calcarious subsaline plains along the River Murray from its junction with the Murrumbidgee 
downward; further ascertained to extend to the tropic of Capricorn in Eastern Australia, having, for instance, 
been collected in Gregory’s expedition at the Mackenzie River; noticed likewise on the Broughton River, 
at the base of the Flinders Ranges and on Spencer’s Gulf in South Australia, by Mr. Drummond in South- 
Western Australia, by Mr. Oldfield towards Sharks Bay, and by Mr. Gunn on the islands of Bass’s Straits; 
thus showing a wider range than that of any other Australian species. 
An ascendent or spreading much-branched plant, from about 1 to a few feet high. Root livid, flexuose, 
almost cylindrical, scantily fibrilliferous. Branches lax, faintly margined with two longitudinal lines, 
streaked when dry. Petioles 3-6 hues long, somewhat channelled, lined with a narrow leafy towards the 
base dilated margin. Stipules united into interpetiolar ones, which are about 1 line long, entire or very 
imperfectly fringed, in age often bifid or somewhat lacerated. Leaflets from J-1J inch long, 4-8 lines 
