106 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[Rutacece. 
appendage of the leafstalk semilanceolate, membranous; pedicels solitary, about as long as the flowers or 
longer; sepals 4, persistent, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, at least half as long as the corolla; petals yellow, 
spotless, with ohovate lamina; filaments 8, without appendages, about as long as tbe sepals; anthers yellow; 
style rather short; stigma hardly divided; liypogynous disk four-lobed, slightly velvet-downy at the margin; 
ovules 2, suspended from near above the middle of the cell; capsule with septiculal dehiscence; valves broadly 
and scariously winged from the summit to the base, navicular-semiorbiculate; seeds solitary in the cell; 
raphe adnate; cotyledons oblong. 
In the Murray desert from the entrance of the Murrumbidgee at least as far as Mount Beevor; also 
known to exist on the Darling River, in the vicinty of Lake Torrens, on the Flinders Ranges, the Light and 
Elizabeth Rivers, and according to Preiss and Oldfield near Champion Bay, the Murchison and Swan River, 
probably therefore extending through a great part of the intervening desert-country. 
A shrub of lax growth, accumbent to the ground or to surrounding plants, generally of dwarf growth, 
sometimes attaining a height of several feet. Branches terete. Branchlets somewhat angular, streaked when 
dry. Stipxdes varied in form, oblong, ovate or nearly round, quite green and fleshy like the leaves, unless 
tipped with an undivided or bifid membrane, scarcely with any furrow to indicate the coalescence of its two 
constituent parts. Petiole 3-6 lines long, fleshy, a little narrower seldom broader than 1 line, with a hardly 
perceptible superficial furrow'. Leaflets in the coast-variety often J—1 inch long’ and 11 to a few lines broad, 
flat, showing' in exsiccation the midnerve and the veins; in meagi’e desert-specimens 2—6 lines long, linear, 
confluent with the' compressed-filiform fleshy petiole and not articulated at the base, forming thus, as it were, 
a simple furcate leaf. Pedicels thin-filiform, 2—4 lines long’, smooth. Sepals 1J—4 lines long, green, reflexed 
in age. Petals rather suddenly contracted into the claw, more or less blunt. Filaments setaceous or linear- 
filiform. Anthers ellipsoid or ovate, with cordate base, according to the size of the flowers exceedingly 
inconstant in length, measuring from l-l line, yellow. Style f—1J line long’, evidently formed by the often 
twisted coalescence of four. Lobes of the disk reniform-semiorbicular. Capsule resembling those of some 
Dodonaese, 5—10 lines long’, round in outline, separable into its constituent carpels, of which sometimes 1-3 
are abortive. Wings finely' net-veined, alway'S considerably' broader than the cells, extending particularly at 
the apex long beyond them, 2—f lines broad, rounded-blunt at both extremities, either free at the summit and 
forming a narrow sinus at the apex of the fruit, or concrete beyond the valves. Endocarp yellow, polished 
inside, not readily' separable. Funicles arising from above or near the middle of the angle, very short. 
Seeds grey'-brow'n, about 1J line long’, slightly' attenuated at the summits. Cotydedons yellowish, about 1 
line long, plane-convex, twice as long as the cylindrical radicle. 
The identification of Roepera aurantiaca with R. fabagifolia is based on circumstantial evidence; for 
although the Western and Southern Australian plants agree in every respect except the leaves, we have seen 
no intermediate forms of the latter. Yet there are before us varieties of Z. Billardierii with leaves precisely 
corresponding to those of Z. aurantiacum and Z. fruticulosum respectively, and in this instance all interme¬ 
diate gradations are clearly known. One of these species seems to be alluded to by' All. Cunningham, in the 
appendix to King’s Survey of the Coast of Australia, p. 23, as observed on an island of Sharks Bay. 
Order BTJTACEJE. 
Jkiss. Gen. 297. 
Elowers hermaphrodite rarely unisexual. Calyx consisting of 3-5 very rarely 10 
free or connate in aestivation imbricate or valvate sepals, rarely monophyllous and 
undivided, very seldom wanting. Petals equal in number to the divisions of the calyx, 
distinct or coherent, imbricate or valvate in aestivation, rarely undeveloped. Stamens 
