Buettneriacece.\ 
THE COLONY OP VICTORIA. 
149 
A tall shrub or small tree. Branchlets terete, tomentose. Petioles cylindrical, J-2 inches long, tomen- 
tigerous. Stipules ovate- or subulate-lanceolate, sometimes linear-subulate, velvet-downy, 2-4 lines long. 
Leaves herbaceous, flat, variable in size and form and indument, 2-6 inches long, above scantily star-hairy 
and soon glabrescent, beneath paler or even whitish by a very short and close vestiment, over which (in the 
tomentose variety) copious star-hairs are distributed; middle nerve and straightly divergent lateral nerves 
beneath prominent ; veins anastomosing between the nerves. Panicle usually opposite to the leaves, some¬ 
times, however, terminal or axillary, tomentose with brown-grey hair. Primary peduncle usually J-l inch 
long. Pedicels very short, or a few lines long, sometimes extended to the length of nearly § inch, provided 
with a solitary lanceolate- or subulate-linear herbaceous velutinous bracteole of 1 to a few lines length. 
Calyx persistent, deeply five-cleft, with ovate-lanceolate spreading somewhat acuminate lobes of about 2 lines 
length. Petals white, glabrous, membranous, from a broad subcordate or deltoid indexed base prolonged 
into an oblong-spathulate finely 5-7-nerved slightly veined ligule. Tube of the stamens less than 1 line long; 
staminodia opposite to the lobes of the calyx; fertile filaments very short, glabrous. Anthers purplish, bent 
outward ; the cells ovate-globose, about J line long, bursting by a frontal longitudinal fissure, the dehiscence 
in consequence of the divergence of the cells appearing to be transverse. Pollen whitish, consisting of 
globular smooth granules. Ovary globular, with five prominent ridges, outward at first only minutely 
papillose. Styles hardly J line long, glabrous, capillary, coherent, separating in age. Stigmas hardly 
thicker than the apices of the styles. Capsule according to extra-Victorian specimens tardily dehiscent, 
almost spherical, measuring* (the bristles added) nearly 1 inch, a number of the bristles connate or coherent 
towards the vertex of the valves, so as to form 5 apical-dorsal somewhat horn-shaped wings. Valves rather 
hard, about 4 lines long, imperfectly separable into two layers, slit along the middle from the summit towards 
the base, inside, with exception of the axis, glabrous, outside very densely covered by innumerable bristles, 
which are hispidulous by copious bundles of short rigid grey hair. Seeds in each cell usually 1-2 developed, 
pure-black, without polish, glabrous, although often slightly rough, nearly 1 line long. Testa coriaceous. 
Embryo lodged in a white rather fleshy indurating albumen, yellowish, about § line long. 
In contrasting this species with specimens of Commersonia echinata, collected in subtropical East 
Australia on the Clarence, Brisbane and Pine Livers, we find the leaves only small-toothed and hardly ever 
lobed, with a predominant cordate-ovate not much acuminated form; the calyx smaller and inside thinly 
velutinous, the petals still smaller and inside slightly downy, the staminodia velutinous ; the middle one of 
each three of these lanceolate , about half as long as the calyx ; the lateral ones much smaller, setaceous, 
only about as long as the fertile stamens; the anthers smaller 5 the ovary less conspicuously ridged; the 
stigmas more conspicuous; the capsule smaller, wingless, covered with shorter bristles, which are less rigidly 
hispidulous; the seeds ovate and dark-brown, provided with a yellowish somewhat longer and more evidently 
lobed strophiole. The embryo shows no appreciable differences. According to Eorsteris figure and Gay’s 
description the fruit, of C. echinata, grown in the South Sea Islands, is by no means smaller than that of 
C. Eraseri. 
The only remaining Commersonia hitherto known, C. Gaudichaudii (Gay, 1. c. x. 213, t. 14), which 
occurs not only at Sharks Bay, but according to Mr. Oldfield’s collections also at the Murchison Liver, shows 
the following marks of distinction. That species is never arborescent ; the leaves are comparatively small , 
remarkably oblique, deeply and bluntly cremated, not acuminate; the cymes consist usually of few flowers ; 
the lobes of the calyx are less acute, sometimes quite blunt, inside slightly downy; the ligule of the petals is 
shorter or as long as the clasping base; the staminodia are all decidedly shorter than the calyx; the lateral 
staminodia uncinate, high-connate with the fertile filament, the middle one semielliptical; the stigmas 
minutely - capitellate; the capsule is, according to Gay’s description and illustration, wingless, beset with 
seemingly tender and shorter bristles; the seeds are ovate and number 4-5 in each cell, are provided with 
a long trisected strophiole, whilst the oblong-linear cotyledons are stated to be (at least in hardly matured 
seeds) longer than the radicle. Should future investigations confirm the latter notes, then a subgeneric 
