146 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[. Buettnenacece. 
On Cape Nelson, W. Allitt; near tlie entrance of the Glenelg* River, Rev. Jul. Echn. Woods; beyond 
Victoria on Mount Benson near Cape Bernouilli, and near the Saltflat of Guichen Bay, Schulzen; in Kan¬ 
garoo Island, Waterhouse. 
A showy shrub of a few to 6 feet high. Branchlets terete, as well as the petioles and peduncles covered 
with grey-brown starry tomentum. Petioles J-l inch long, cylindrical. Leaves usually 2-3 inches long 
and broad, sometimes slightly sinuated, above not glabrescent, although particularly in age much thinner 
star-hairy than beneath, with a not very strong midrib, with straight divergent lateral distant nerves and 
anastomosing not very conspicuous veins; the apex acute, less frequently obtuse; the basal lobes rounded, 
sometimes overlapping. Primary peduncle J-l inch long, cylindrical, rather stout. Branches of the cyme 
usually several, often flexuose, mostly g-l| inch long. Bracts and bracteoles long persistent, 1-2 lines long, 
or the lower bracts several lines long, very narrow, star-downy; the former at the base of the pedicel; the 
latter hypocalycine or slightly remote from the calyx, much less frequently geminate than solitary. Pedicels 
commonly 2-4 lines long, upwards somewhat thickened. Calyx about 4 lines long, deeply five-cleft, casually 
six-cleft, almost membranous; the lobes somewhat keeled by the prominent midrib, long and almost gradually 
protracted from a broad-ovate base to the apex, streaked by secondary nerves, tender veined. Petals 
resembling those of Lasiopetalmn, rhomboid-orbicular, only about J line long, pale fulvous or purplish, with 
broad hardly unguiculate base sessile. Filaments glabrous, linear-setaceous, about half as long as the anther, 
which is about f line long, narrow-ellipsoid, fulvous or purplish-black, with slight terminal and basal emar- 
gination; each cell opening with an introrse terminal very short pore-like slit. Pollen-grains globular, smooth. 
Style hardly longer than 1 line, glabrous at or towards the apex, longer bearded towards the middle than 
towards the base. Stigmas extremely minute. Capsule spherical, trifurrowed, of the size of a pea, inside, 
except at the very slightly pilose axis, glabrous. Seeds about 1 line long, subovate, slightly trigonous, 
imperfectly clothed with short white down. Stropliiole pale livid, somewhat fleshy at the base, with several 
narrow lobes, of which the anterior ones are the longest. Albumen amygdaloid, white. Embryo yellowish. 
Cotyledons slightly emarginate at the base. 
C. bracteata differs, according* to the figure in Bot. Reg. t. 47, in less broad leaves, often only geminate 
and longer branches of the cyme, petaloid bracteoles, smaller rose-colored flowers, absence of petals, a 
glandulous-hairy ovary. C. membranacea has less hairy leaves, long slender peduncles, which as well as the 
pedicels are clothed with spreading septate often glandulous hair, and differs further in most of the characters 
pointed out under C. bracteata, also in its more densely tomentose style and narrow lobes of the calyx. C. 
oppositifolia constitutes a variety of the latter species. C. parviflora (Turcz. Bullet. Mosc. xx. 172) has very 
small flowers on extremely short pedicels, -whilst the whole inflorescence is densely star-hairy. Ours is the 
only species as yet noticed beyond the precincts of Western Australia. 
THOMASIA. 
Gay , in Mem . da Mm. cT Hist. Nat. vii. 450. 
Calyx corollaceous, submembranous, persistent, five-cleft, supported by a solitary trisected 
persistent bracteole. Petals 5, minute, scale-like, opposite to the fertile stamens, or wanting. Stamens 
5, alternate with the lobes of the calyx, with or without interjacent minute staminodia. Filaments 
short, linear-subulate. Anthers affixed at the inner side, ovate or oblong, openi/ng by lateral slits 
rarely by pores. Ovary 3-5-celled. Ovule 2-14 in each cell, ascendent, affixed to the interior angle 
of the cell. Style setaceous. Stigmas very minute. Capsule enclosed in the calyx, 3-5-celled, bursting 
with loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds subovate. Testa downy. Mesocarp subcrustaceous. Strophiole crenate 
or laciniate. Embryo straight, placed in the axis of the fleshy albumen. Cotyledons almost orbicular, 
flat, as long as the c}dindrical inferior radicle. 
