Buettneriacecc. ] 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
141 
LASIOPETALUM. 
Sm. in Transact. Linn . Soc. iv. 216. 
Calyx corollaceous, subcoriaceous, persistent, five-cleft, supported by a solitary trisected per¬ 
sistent bracteole. Petals 5, minute , scale-like , alternate with the lobes of the calyx, rarely wanting. 
Stamens 5, opposite to the petals, free. Filaments short, linear-subulate. Anthers affixed at the 
inner side, ovate or oblong, upwards attenuated and truncate, opening by two terminial pores, rarely 
also by lateral slits. Staminodia wanting. Ovary 3- rarely 4- or 5-celled, with 2 sometimes 3 ovules 
in each cell. Style short, subulate, at or above the base articulated. Stigmas 3 rarely 4 or 5, very 
minute. Capsule enclosed in the calyx, 3- rarely 4- or 5-celled, with loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds 1 
or 2 in each cell, ascendent, subovate. Testa downy. Mesosperm subcrustaceous. Strophiole lobed. 
Embryo straight, placed in the axis of the fleshy albumen. Cotyledons almost orbicular, flat. Eadicle 
cylindrical, inferior. 
Shrubs, scattered over many tracts of extratropical Australia, clothed with an usually starry 
tomentum. Leaves coriaceous, alternate, rarely opposite, simple, almost always entire, above glabrous 
or glabrescent. Stipules wanting. Cymes opposite to the leaves, bracteate. Bracteole unilateral, 
calycine or rarely petaloid ; its middle lobe the longest. Flowers not vividly colored. Anthers usually 
purplish-black. Capsule comparatively small. Seeds almost black.— Gay , in M&m. duMus. vii. 445, 
t. 18 et 19 ; Endl. Gen. 996 ; Steetz, in Lehm. PL Preiss. ii. 317. 
Lysiosepaium (F. M. Fragm. i. 142), Coretkrostylis and Thomasia are the genera, which in the 
cyclus of affinity approach nearest to Lasiopetalum. The former differs in free sepals and many- 
ovuled cells of the ovary. The differences of the latter genera are pointed out in the following pages. 
Sjasiopetalum ferruglneum, Smith , in Andr. Bot. Pep. t. 208 ; Vent. Malmais. i. t. 59 ; Bot. 
Mag. t. 1766; Beichenb. Magax. dev JE&thet. Botan. t. 37; L. Sieberi, Steetz, in Lehm. PI. Preiss. ii. 338. 
Leaves alternate, short-stalked, ovate- or linear-oblong, entire, repand or at the blunt or cordate base 
irregularly lobed, flat or slightly recurved at the margin, beneath thinly velvet-hairy; cymes short-peduncu¬ 
late; flowers rather large, subsessile or short-stalked; segments of the bracteole semilanceolate- or linear- 
subulate ; the lateral segments shorter than the calyx; lobes of the calyx inside grey-tomentose, outside 
rusty-tomentose, semilanceolate-deltoid; petals glabrous; anthers about as long as the filaments, opening by 
terminal pores; style shorter than the anthers, below the middle or near the base velutinous; ovary densely 
covered with a short white tomentum, often short-rostellate; capsule three-celled, outside starry velutinous, 
inside glabrous; longer lobes of the strophiole about half as long as the seed. 
On granitic ridges near Mount Imlay; thence through New South Wales at least as far north as 
Botany Bay. 
A pretty bush, a few or many feet in height. Branchlets terete, tomentose by starry at first rust- 
brown afterwards blackisli-grey hair. Leaves 1J-5 inches long, 4-10 lines broad, sometimes subliastate, 
above scantily star-hairy and soon glabrescent, beneath densely clothed with short more or less grey or 
ferruginous rarely white star-hair, one-nerved, somewhat wrinkled at the surface by the impressed lateral 
nerves. Primary peduncles opposite to the leaves, measuring less than J inch. Cymes consisting usually 
of two branches, which are variedly shorter than J inch, and as well as the peduncle, bracts and bracteoles 
rusty-tomentose. Bracts linear-subulate, 2 or several lines long. Lateral segments of the bracteoles about 
2 lines long, middle one usually 3 lines long. Length of calyx 3-4 lines; its lobes flat or slightly reflexed 
at the margin. Petals spathulate- or orbicular-rhomboid, membranous, veined, entire, J-J line long, at first 
purple-brownish, afterwards dark-purple, inserted as well as the stamens on a very narrow black-purple 
