Buettrieriace(s.\ 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
147 
Star-hairy shrubs, rare in the southern rather frequent in the south-western tracts of Australia. 
Sti/pules foliaceous, usually large. Leaves often chartaceous or herbaceous, varied in form, always 
alternate, not rarely waved or sinuated. Inflorescence racemose, seldom cymose, opposite to the leaves. 
Bracteole unilateral, calycine. Flowers usually purplish. Stamens free or connate at the base. Style 
usually smooth. Capsule comparatively small. Seeds black.— Endl. Gen. Plant. 997; Steetz, inLehm. 
PI. Preiss. ii. 317; Ditomostrophe, Turcz. in Bullet. Moscow, xix. 498. 
Thomasia petalocalyx, F. M. in Transact . of the Philos . Soc. of Viet. i. 35 ; T. macrocalyx, 
Sclilechtend. in Linrusa, xx. 633. 
Hispid-tomentose ; petioles shorter than the stipules ; leaves almost herbaceous, oblong* or ovate-oblong*, 
repand or entire, at the margin recurved; stipules large, oblique cordate-ovate or rhomboid- or dimidiate- 
cordate; racemes simple, few-flowered; pedicels nearly as long as the flower; segments of the bracteole 
lanceolate-ovate or lanceolate , almost as long as the calyx; petals obcordate- or cuneate-orbicular, smooth or 
rarely slightly downy, sometimes absent; anthers oblong-linear, opening towards the apex by short terminal 
slits ; filaments extending not far beyond the base of the anthers; staminodia linear-subulate, often wanting; 
style glabrous, about as long as the anthers; ovary short-downy ; capsule subsessile, glabrescent, three-celled, 
minutely apiculated; longer lobes of the strophiole several times shorter than the seeds. 
On stony coast-ridges near Yanake at Wilson's Promontory. In South Australia near the Rivers Light 
and Gawler in pine-scrubs, Dr. Behr; on scrubby declivities of the Barossa and Bugle Ranges, F. M.; in 
Kangaroo Island, F. Waterhouse. In Western Australia between the Great Australian Bight and King 
George's Sound. 
A diffusely ramified shrub, 1-3 feet high. Tomentuin star-hairy, brown and dense on the younger 
branches, less copious on the leaves. Stipules almost sessile, quite foliaceous, J-l inch long, inequilateral, 
one-nerved; the broader outer half sometimes lobed. Petioles 2-4 lines long. Leaves measuring in length 
1-2 inches, in width j-J inch, usually rounded at the base, blunt at the apex, not much paler beneath, 
somewhat wrinkled and shining above, with an above impressed beneath prominent midrib, with several 
lateral nerves and copious netted veins. Peduncles rather slender, with addition of the rachis often 2-3J 
inches long, rarely less than 1 inch long, clothed with grey star-downs of unequal length, producing the 
pedicels only unilaterally at its upper portion, bearing usually 2-5, rarely but one flower. Pedicels distant, 
more or less grey or brown star-downy; the lowermost usually bractless; the others frequently supported at 
the base by a foliaceous ovate- or narrow-lanceolate acute bract of 2-3 lines length; the uppermost bracts 
sometimes geminate. Segments of the bracteole herbaceous, reflexed, inside thinner star-hairy than outside. 
Calyx of a squalid lilac color, about 4 lines long, cleft rather beyond the middle into 5 accidentally 6 ovate 
or orbicular-ovate inside scantily downy lobes; the midnerve of the divisions yellowish-green, prominent, 
from which diverge lateral nerves, which again are united by net-veins. Petals almost of the color of the 
anthers, seldom longer sometimes even shorter than | line. Anthers hardly 1 line long, finally black- 
purplish, somewhat broader towards the slightly bilobed base, pallescent and extravergent towards the apex, 
where alone the cells are bursting during anthesis. Pollen-grains whitish, ovate, smooth, longitudinally 
dehiscent. Styles 3, connate into a solitary setaceous one. Stigmas exceedingly minute. Ovules often 5-6 
in each cell of the ovary. Capsule almost sessile, pointed by a very short apex, covered with almost invisible 
downs, globose or ovate-globose, with 3 longitudinal furrows, 2-21 lines long, inside glabrous. Seeds 1-4 
ripening* in each cell, sparingly clothed with short white downs, broad ovate, black-brown. Strophiole livid, 
somewhat carnulent, verging into either a hippocrepic or cupular form; its lobes bent to the raphe. Radicle 
cylindrical, hardly longer than the broad-orbicular cotyledons. 
The principal and possibly not specific differences of Thomasia macrocalyx (Steud. in Lehm. PI. Preiss. 
i. 230; Steetz, 1. c. ii. 319) must be sought in the narrower segments of the liypocalycine bracteole, the 
usually larger calyces, the longer filaments and style, the longitudinal dehiscence of the anther-cells and the 
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