188 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[. Polygalea. 
This Comesperma is readily distinguished from the South-Western Australian C. virgatum in the not 
tiutescent also less branched and less elated stem, in not prominently keeled thinner and often broader leaves, 
in usually shorter and less subulate middle bracteoles, in pedicels neither when fruit-bearing very divergent, 
nor nearly as long as the capsule; in not fringed claws of the petals, in narrower capsules, which are 
gradually contracted into a much longer stipes and never assuming the almost deltoid-cuneate form charac¬ 
teristic of those of C. virgatum; further, in more copiously comose seeds, which are not provided with a 
distinctly developed strophiole, whilst the strophiole of C. virgatum ascends from the hilum in a narrow line 
quite to the clialaza, where it is dilated to a semiorbicular membrane. Thus the transit is clearly established 
from the section Prosthemosperma to the other divisions of the genus. The long villi of the seeds of C. vir¬ 
gatum readily secede from the testa and are retained in the cavity of the cell, whilst the short hair remain 
persistent. The development of the short dorsal spur of the galea takes place not always, and its length is 
subject to considerable variation, sometimes exceeding J line. 
Plate VIII. 1, a flower with its bracteoles and pedicel ; 2, front view of a flower laid open; 3, hack 
view of the same; 4, a pistil; 5, a bundle of stamens ; 6, pollen-grains; 7, a capsule; 8 and 9, vertical dis¬ 
sections of the same; 10, horizontal section of the same; 11, a seed with the long indument; 12, a seed 
without its hairy indument; 13, longitudinal section of seed, exhibiting the embryo: all figures variously 
magnified . 
Sect. III. Isocalyx, Steetz, in Lehm. Plant. Preiss. ii. 306. 
Anterior sepals free, not much shorter than the wings. Capsule attenuated into a long stipes. 
Seeds long-downy. 
Comesperma calymeg*a 5 Labill . Nov, Noll. Plant . Special, ii. 23, 1. 162 ; Steetz , in Lehm. Plant. 
Preiss. ii. 306; Schlechtend . in Linneea, xx. 635 ; J. Nooli. FI. Tasm. i. 32 ; C. isocalyx, Spreng . Syst. Teget. 
iii. 172. 
Erect, herbaceous; stems cylindrical; leaves fiat, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate or the lowest obovate; 
racemes densely many-flowered, pedunculate, usually blue; pedicels shorter than the flowers; lateral 
bracteoles hardly half as long as the semilanceolate middle one; anterior sepals disconnected , oblong-lanceo¬ 
late, all more than half as long as the spathulate-ovate wings; petals glabrous; filaments to about the 
middle monadelplious, thence free; upper lobe of the style narrow, bearded; capsules spathulate-cuneate, 
angular at the summit, long attenuated into the base, much longer than the pedicel ; seeds broad-ovate, long 
lanuginose-comose with villi arising from every part of the testa ; strophiole obliterated ; cotyledons broad- 
oval. 
On busliy barren ridges and mountains and on arid heathy plains in many parts of the colony ; for 
instance, at Port Phillip, the Wimmera, Wilson’s Promontory, Port Albert and in several intermediate 
localities. Beyond Victoria known from Tasmania, also from Kangaroo Island, St. Vincent’s Gulf, the 
Barossa Ranges, Bugle Ranges, Mount Lofty Ranges and other spots in South Australia. 
Root flexuose, descending*, livid, distantly fibrilliferous, with a somewhat spongy integument, sending 
forth several or many stems. The latter from a few inches to about 1 foot long, cylindrical, upwards some¬ 
what angular, simple or few-branched, finely streaked, smooth or towards the base finely subpapillose-downy. 
Leaves of thickly consistence, glabrous, neither distinctly nerved nor veined, varying in length mostly from 
4-10 lines; the radical leaves somewhat rosulate, early lost; the lower stem-leaves larger than the upper 
ones, which are gradually decreasing in size, sometimes veiy narrow, hut hardly even reduced to minute 
bract-like scales. Racemes 1 or a few, terminal, at first dense spike-like and about 1 inch long*, after 
florescence lengthened to 2-4 inches. Pedicels 1-1J line long. Middle bracteole cymbiform-lanceolate, 
about 1 line long, of fully twice the length of the narrow-lanceolate lateral bracteoles, often blue at the back, 
always white at the margin. Posterior sepal ovate; anterior ones oblong, all about line long, sessile with 
