Malvacece.] 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
167 
bluish, obcordate-cuneate, streaked by saturated-colored veins, connate only near the base, from the middle 
towards the base scantily ciliated, at the base bearded-fringed, otherwise glabrous. Staminal column slender, 
about 4 lines long, glabrous towards base and apex, exserting from above the middle to the summit numerous 
whitish capillary filaments. Anthers renate, pale yellow, about J line long, internally with a narrow longi¬ 
tudinal ridge. Pollen-grains yellow, spherical, echinate. Styles short-exserted beyond the staminal tube, 
glabrous and connate to near the middle, thence setaceous-capillary, free and lightly recurved, along the inner 
side very thinly bearded-stigmatose. Fruit-columella about as broad as long, glabrous, measuring 1 lines, 
below the apex ridged by the persistent remnants of the pericarp of the seceding carpels, terminated by a 
small cone. Carpels 10-16, glabrous, concealed within the more or less connivent calyx, indehiscent, hardly 
longer than 1 line, pallid- or black-brown, compressed-trigonous, roundish-renate, little coherent, rather 
acute at the dorsal edges, flat one-nerved and slightly wrinkled at the back, transversely streaked at the 
sides, opening at the ventral angle with an irregular aperture, caused by the rupture of the pericarp from the 
fruit-axis. Seeds filling' the cavity of the thin pericarp, smooth, black- or fulvid-brown. Albumen white, 
mucilaginous-fleshy. Embryo arcuate. Cotyledons yellowish, cordate, plicate, as long as the cylindrical 
radicle, which they partially enclose. 
This species has many characters in common with Lavatera maritima, L. Africana and L. silvestris; 
the two former differ in subulate-linear stipules, the latter in a scattered-hairy indument, in acuminate lobes 
of the calyx, and in obtusangular carpels. 
In our herbarium exist cultivated specimens of Lavatera hispida, raised from the seeds of plants 
naturalized in the islands of Bass’s Straits. The root of L. plebeja is medicinally used like that of Althaea 
officinalis. Mr. A. Tolmer has recommended the plant as eligible for the manufacture of paper. 
HOWITTIA. 
F. M. in Transact. Viet . Inst. i. 116. 
Flowers bisexual. Calyx 5- rarely 4- or 6-cleft, persistent, -without an involucre. Petals 5, 
unguiculate, connate at the base with the staminal tube. Stamens numerous ; free parts of filaments 
emerging separately along the upper portion of the tube. Anthers kidney-shaped, one-celled. Ovary 
one , 3- rarely 4- celled , with two collateral ascending ovules in each cell. Styles 3 rarely 4, connate 
into one. Stigma clubshaped or capitate, 3- rarely 4-lobed. Capsule loculicidal, 3- rarely Evolved. 
Cells containing two collateral ascending glabrous seeds. Raphe lateral. Testa thinly coriaceous- 
crustaceous. Albumen rather scanty. Cotyledons trisected, foliaceous, curved or infracted. Radicle 
descending. 
A starry tomentose tall shrub, restricted to South-Eastern Australia. Leaves lobeless, lanceolate- 
ovate- or broad-cordate, crenulated, denticulated or repand. Stipules obliterated or very fugacious. 
Pedicels axillary, usually solitary. Corolla purple, rarely white. Capsule enclosed. 
In the systematic arrangement Howittia takes a place next to Lagunea, which differs in the 
development of stipules, in the terminal secession and in the number of the styles, in the five-celled 
many-seeded capsule, in the almost total absence of albumen and in the undivided cotyledons, the 
embryo of Lagunea showing no generic distinction from that of Sida, whereas the dissected cotyledons 
render the embryo of Howittia quite aberrant from that of any other hitherto described Malvaeeous 
plant. In regard to the number and position of the ovules Howittia bears comparison to Serrsea, in 
regard to the styles to Fugosia. 
Howittia trilocularis, F. M. in Transact . Viet. Inst. i. 116. 
On bushy declivities of the Victoria Ranges 3 Wilhelmi. At Mount Arapiles ; Dallachy. On scrubby 
ridges around Lake King; F. M. In coast-ravines towards Cape Howe; F. M. On the banks of the 
