202 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[• Molluginece. 
vessels of Mollugo trigastrotkeca burst only under maceration; but since they are 
truly valvate and since the seeds of Mollugo stricta are neither numerous in each 
cell, it seems advisable to unite Trigastrotheca with Mollugo, although its singularly 
shaped capsule entitles it to subgeneric distinction. Some additional Indian species 
of Mollugo are likely yet to be discovered in tropical Australia. 
GLINUS. 
Lcefling , Iter Hispanic, 145. 
Sepals 5. Petals wanting. Staminodia linear-subulate or furcate, indefinite in number or 
wanting. Stamens 3-24, free or coherent. Filaments linear-setaceous, membranous. Anther-cells 
bursting with extrorse longitudinal dehiscence. Ovary free, 3-5-celled, with numerous ovules. Styles 
3-5, stigmatose. Capsule membranous, completely 3-5-celled. Septa separating from the columella, 
permanently connate with the valves. Seeds several or numerous. Funicles very short. Strophiole 
more or less extended into a bristly process. Testa crustaceous. Embryo semiannular. 
Glabrous or downy procumbent herbs, in very few species distributed over most of the warmer 
parts of the globe. Leaves flat, entire or denticulated, "without stipules. Flowers axillary, collected 
into sessile fascicles or umbels, seldom solitary.— Gcertn. deFruct. et Seminib. ii. 236, 1. 130; Fenzl, 
in denAnnalen des Wiener Museums, i. 355. 
The closely allied genus Orygia, for which in North Australia may be sought, is recognized by 
its scattered leaves, by its paniculate leafless inflorescence, by its filiform wingless filaments, by its 
scale-like petals (or staminodia), by its ehartaceous or pergamentaceous capsule, by the almost perfect 
rupture of the septa from the valves but not from the columna, and by the absence of any longer or 
shorter bristly process of the strophiole. The embryo of both genera shows no appreciable differences. 
The genus Mollugo stands still nearer to Glinus ; it is demarked merely on account of the absence of 
a distinct strophiole, which note must be declared of doubtful value, when we see the strophiole not 
entirely suppressed in Mollugo nudicaulis. Hence Achilles Richard's opinion, that Glinus should be 
transferred to Mollugo, is deserving of every attention. 
G-linus lotoides, Lcefl. Iter Ilisp. 145 ; Bunn. Flor. Indie. 112, t. 36 ; Sibthorp $>' Smith , Flora 
Greeca, t. 472; Fenzl ., in Annul. Wien. Mus. i. 357; G. dictamnoides, Lainarh , Encyclop. Method, ii. 729, 
t. 413; Mollugo Glinus, Ach. Rich. Tent. Flor. Abyss, i. 48. 
Stellate-downy ; leaves obovate- or spathulate- or orbicular-cuneate; sepals large, acute; staminodia 
furcate, developed in uncertain number or rarely wanting; stamens 5-20; stigmas 5, rarely 4 or 3; placentas 
nearly as long as the cell; capsule usually five-valved; seeds very numerous; strophiole spongiose, of about 
half the size of the small and very numerous seed ; testa seriate-granular; bristly process of the strophiole 
laxly encircling the seed. 
On the sandy occasionally inundated hanks of the River Murray and there also at the margins of 
lagoons and in shallow depressions after the recess of water, reaching here in latitude about 35° S. its 
southern limit; extending over many parts of subtropical and tropical Australia, Asia and America, also 
from the south to the north of Africa and likewise over South Europe. 
An annual herb, with several or many expanded dichotomous stems, which attain a length from a tew 
inches to about 1 foot, and are seldom erect. Leaves herbaceous, usually approximated by four into irregular 
whorls, unequal-sized, exclusive of the petiole from a few lines to about 1 inch long, tapering with cuneate 
base into a petiole of about half their length, somewhat penninerved, downy on both pages. Pedicels as long 
