114 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
\JRutacece. 
The examination of a considerable series of Tasmanian, Victorian and New South Wales specimens of 
this plant proves the characteristics pointed out by Labillardidre as distinguishing B. pilonema from B. parvi- 
fiora to-be of no permanent avail. Nevertheless, the stamens are in general hairless and the petals white in 
the Tasmanian and Victorian plant, whereas in the East Australian specimens the filaments appear frequently 
scantily hairy, whilst the petals attain a pink color. The great length of the sepals in proportion to the 
petals renders B. parviflora from most others at once discernible, although that note cannot implicitly be 
relied on, being, for instance, variable in B. rhomboidea, a plant from the Alps of Tasmania, very closely allied 
to our here described species, although habitually veiy distinct. 
Soronia polygalifolia, Smith , Tracts relating to Nat, Hist, t. 7 ; Transact. Linn, Soc, viii. 285; 
Pcem. Archie, iii. t. 3; B. tetrathecoides, Cand, Prodr, i. 722; B. anemonifolia, All. Cunn, in Fields Nero 
South Wales, 330 (not Paxt, Magaz, ix. 123) ; B. hyssopifolia, Sieber , according to Spreng. Syst. Veg. cur. 
post. 148; J. Hook. FI or. Tasm. i. 66; B. nana, Hook. Icon. Plant, t. 270; B. bipinnata, IAndl. in Mitch, 
Trop. Austr. 225; B. dentigera, F. 31. in Transact. Viet. Inst. i. 32. 
Suffruticose or shrubby; leaves simple, linear- or oblong-lanceolate, rarely subovate or linear, entire, 
almost flat, subsessile, or ternate or biternate and petiolate, with oblong- or linear-lanceolate entire or cuneate 
or linear-cuneate frecpiently upwards three-toothed or trifid rarely obovate rhomboid or linear teethless 
leaflets, rarely impari-pinnate bijugate; pedicels axillary rarely terminal, solitary rarely geminate or ternate, 
shorter seldom longer than the leaves, very rarely cymose, near or below the middle provided with two 
semilanceolate bracteoles; sepals rhomboid- or semilanceolate-ovate, half as long as the pink glabrous or 
outside slightly downy corolla or twice or three times shorter ; filaments all fertile, ciliate, minutely- 
glandulous at the summit; anthers small, glabrous, appendiculate; style short; stigma small, at last 
quadrifid; disk repand; carpels about three times longer than the calyx; valves of endocarp protracted 
at the junction into a deltoid tooth; seeds rather large , opaque , rough ; cotyledons nearly as long as the 
radicle. 
As well in moist moory swamps or alpine localities as in dry forest land or on arid stony or scrubby 
ranges or on sandy ridges not rare; for instance, on Mount Iiorong, the Grampians, the Pentland Hills, the 
Buffalo Ranges, the Ovens River, Mayday Hills, Broken River, Delatite, the subalpine summit of Mount 
Ligar, the Avon Ranges, La Trobe River, McCrae’s Island. In South Australia as yet only found in the 
Strmgybark Forest, between Mount Lofty and the Onkaparinga River. In East Australia noticed near 
Botany Bay, in the Blue Mountains, on the higher elevations of New England, on Mount Mitchell, the 
Hastings River, near Moreton Bay, on the Burnett River and in 18° S.L. on the Newcastle Range, and 
according to Sir Tli. Mitchell on the Salvator River. In Tasmania and on some of the islands of Bass’s 
Straits rather abundant. 
One of the most variable species of the vegetable kingdom, being equally able to endure the frosts of 
the Alps and the sirocco of the lowland, equally adapted to the insular cool climate of Tasmania and the 
tropical climate of North-Eastern Australia. A neat plant, erect or ascendent or prostrate, glabrous or 
downy, from a few inches to several feet high, producing' generally from each root many more or less stout 
or slender stems. Branches few or copious, slightly angular. Leaves generally shining, sometimes promi¬ 
nently dotted, affording notes for subdividing the species into three varieties; those of the simple-leaved 
variety devoid of a distinct petiole, 2—15 lines long’, 3 lines broad, coriaceous or subcoriaceous, not much 
paler sometimes of equal color beneath, flat or recurved at the margin, almost constantly acute. Leaves of 
the trifoliolate variety consisting of three leaflets similar to single leaves, borne on a common petiole, which 
is generally about half sometimes fully as long as the leaflets, channelled, linear, rarely wedge-shaped; they 
are generally" less than J inch long, sometimes reduced to J inch in length, sometimes thick coriaceous, 
sometimes more chartaceous, flat or concave above, hardly ever recurved at the margin unless in age. All 
gradations between this variety and the preceding one are perceptible on specimens collected at the Delatite, 
