Rxitacece.] 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
125 
length and is clothed towards the middle with downs, that the rostrum of the carpels is less pointed and less 
long*, and lastly that the seeds are larger, polished and pure black. 
Philotheca longifolia (Turcz. in Bullet, de la Soc. Imp6r. des Natur. de Moscou, xxii. 2,16) seems to 
differ only from P. australis, in oblong* anthers terminated by a larger and bearded appendage, a note 
probably of uncertain value ; still we are hitherto unacquainted with its fruit. But under any considerations 
this diversity of the projection of the anthers tends to confirm the correctness of the view adopted in this 
work, that Crowea might be transferred to Eriostemon, its sole distinction depending* on a similar apparently 
invalid mark, Philotheca has been especially referred to on this occasion, because this beautiful plant will 
probably yet be found in the eastern parts of this colony. 
The exclusively Tasmanian Eriostemon virgatus may be inserted into the seiies Erionema of the genus, 
unless it is kept apart on account of the number of its floral and fruit divisions, which are analagous to those 
of Boronia. In the Flora Tasmanica (vol. ii. p. 358) E. Oldfieldii (Fragm. PhytogT. Austr. i. 3) is combined 
with the above species. In specimens of the former, gathered on the hills beyond Flight Bay by Mr. 
Oldfield, we find the branchlets glabrous and tuberculate, the leaves tapering into a sessile base, often 
mucronulate, never retuse, and generally somewhat rough beneath from prominulous glands, whilst the 
flowers are principally axillary with quaternary number of floral- and fruit-parts and often solitary, and the 
carpels, to judge from their unripe state, terminated by a conspicuous acute rostrum. In E. Oldfieldii, on 
the contrary, the branchlets are somewhat downy and always destitute of tubercles ; the petioles are distinctly 
developed, the leaves never mucronulate but not seldom retuse, neither rough but often shining beneath ; the 
flowers are terminal and umbellate with the normal number of flower- and fruit-parts, whilst the carpels are 
small and terminated by a short and blunt rostrum. The plant is besides characterized by a balsamic scent, 
strongly retained even in the dried plant. The flowers, as yet in a developed state unknown, are likely to 
prove that E. Oldfieldii belongs to the following section. 
Sect. III. Leionema. 
Leaves often glabrous, always destitute of scales. Flowers in most cases umbellate. Segments 
of the calyx small. Petals deciduous, white rarely yellow, often tinged with red, valvate in aestivation. 
Stamens nearly as long as or longer than the corolla. Filaments glabrous. Anthers without a distinct 
terminal appendage. Stigmas minute, coherent. Carpels generally rostrate. 
Eriostemon pung*ens, IAndl . in JilitchelV s three Exped. ii. 156. 
Dwarf; branchlets angular, often downy; leaves lanceolate - or channelled-linear, acute , mucronate , 
coriaceous, margined, almost or entirely glabrous, on very short petioles, rarefy sessile; pedicels slender, 
axillary, solitary, rarefy geminate, of less or almost the same length as the flower, with minute and acute 
bracts and bracteoles at the base; segments of the calyx nearly rhomboid, minute ciliolated, several times 
shorter than the small whitish outside glabrous deciduous petals; filaments suddenly terminated into a 
subulate apex, veiy scantily hairy, dotted, more than half as long as the petals; anthers tumid at the apex; 
style very short, glabrous, cylindrical; stigma minute, obscurely five-lobed; carpels oblique-ovate, acute, 
short-rostrate; valves of the endocarp oblique-cuneate, toothless at their junction; placental membrane 
navicular-ovate; seeds opaque , black, somewhat wrinkled. 
On stony ranges and in sandy desert-tracts not frequent; towards Mount Hope, Sir Th. Mitchell; near 
the Murray River and its lower tributaries; in the Grampians; in South Australia towards Mount Lofty and 
Glen Osmond. 
A singular little bush, in external appearance more imitating an epacrideous or leptospermaceous plant 
than of any of its congeners, oftener of diffuse or even prostrate growth than erect, producing flowers 
already in its second year. Indument of the branchlets almost hirtellous, spreading, in rare cases wanting. 
