MolluginecB.] 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
201 
lined. Strophiole about four times shorter than the seed, pale, fleshy when fresh, oblique semiovate, very 
faintly lobed. Embryo greenish, slender, almost horseshoe-curved. Albumen scantily or scarcely developed. 
Codonocarpus pyramidalis (E. M. in Linnaea, xxv. 438) agrees genetically well with C. cotinifolius, but 
is specifically fully marked by its pyramidal growth, by linear leaves, by longer although still very small 
stipules, by pedicels hardly of greater length than the fruit, by somewhat larger carpels, and by not rugose 
seeds with a comparatively smaller strophiole. Its male flowers accord fully with those of C. cotinifolius. 
In some specimens of the latter the female inflorescence is terminated by male flowers. The original C. 
Australis is characterized by lanceolate leaves extending into a very long acumen, by a seemingly still more 
suddenly and broadly expanded column, by the slightly rough-pulverulent dorsal lines of the carpels and 
probably in other notes, which our very imperfect knowledge of that very local plant not admits of pointing- 
out at present. Should the male flowers of C. Australis, which as yet are unknown, prove distinct from those 
of the here assumed congeners, then it would be necessary to restore the genus Hymenotheca for the recep¬ 
tion of G. pyramidalis and cotinifolius. Dissecting the half-matured but somewhat defect fruit of C. Australis, 
from Cunninghamian specimens, which we owe to the liberality of the venerable R. He ward, Esq., the writer 
observes the existence of the minute subulate styles as described in C. cotinifolius. Nor seem more than one 
ovule contained in each carpel, as previously mentioned by Endlielier in Hueg. Enum. p. 10. The same 
authority ascribes inner whorls of seminiferous carpels to this plant. The young seeds and their strophiole 
exhibit nothing distinct in their characteristic. The shape of leaves proving very variable in a congener, it 
remains yet further to be ascertained how far the long-acuminate leaves of C. Australis afford means of 
specific discrimination. 
Order MOLLUGINE^. 
JBentli . in Proceed . Linn . Soc. 1861. 
Mowers bisexual. Sepals 5, free, persistent, imbricate in bud. Petals 5, seldom 
more, often wanting. Stamens definite or indefinite. Pilaments free or towards tbe 
base connate or coherent, all fertile or some sterile. Anthers two-celled, bursting 
longitudinally. Ovary free, 3-5 -celled. Ovules several or many in each cell, attached 
to its inner angle. Styles 3-5, free, inward stigmatose. Capsule completely or incom¬ 
pletely B-5-celled, bursting with loculicidal dehiscence. Albumen central-unilateral, 
farinaceous. Embryo peripherical, imperfectly annular. 
Herbaceous or suffruticose plants, dispersed in the eastern hemisphere through 
the warmer parts of the temperate and through the tropical zone, rare in the western 
hemisphere. Leaves scattered or spuriously verticillate, very seldom reduced to mi¬ 
nute scales. Stipules developed or wanting. Plowers variously disposed, often cymose. 
The small order of Mollugineae, according to the limits recently assigned to it 
by Mr. G. Bentham, comprises amongst Australian plants three species of Glinus, 
Mollugo Cerviana, Mollugo trigastrotheca (Trigastrotheca molluginea, P. M. in Hook. 
Kew. Misc. ix. 16), and two species of Macarthuria (conf. Pragm. Phytogr. Austr. i. 
11). Gunnia septicida (P. M. Heport on Plants of Babbage’s Exped. p. 9) is probably 
rather more congruous' with Molluginese than with the recently recorded characters 
of Portulacece and Picoidese, differing from all in the septicidal dehiscence. The seed 
