34 
MIRBELIA speciosa. 
Beautiful Mirbelia. 
EEE 
Linnean Class and Order. DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA,. 
Natural Order. LEGUMINOSZ, DC, prodr, 2. p. 93. 
Subordo I. PAPILIONACE.—Tribus I. Sopuores. Supra fol. 5. 
MIRBELIA. Calyx 5-fidus, bilabiatus. Legumen dispermum, longitudinaliter 
biloculare, sutura utraque superiore presertim introflexi.—Suffrutices Australusici, 
fructu ad Astrugalum, staminibus et habitu ad Sophoreas accedentes. Folia ternatim ver- 
ticillata. Flores purpurei. DC. prodr. 2. p. 114. 

M. speciosa, foliis linearibus subacutis marginibus revolutis integerrimis, floribus (fo- 
liis floralibus abbreviatis) in spicam terminalem interruptam dispositis. DC. prodr. 
2. p. 115. 
Mirbelia speciosa. Sich. pl.exs.n. holl.n.367. Swt, hort, brit. add. p.475. Spreng. syst. 
vol. 4, par, 2. p. 175. 
Stem suffruticose, from a foot to 18 inches in height, much 
branched: branches slender, angular, and clothed with a hoary 
pubescence. Leaves whorled, generally in threes, linear, scarcely 
acute, but terminated with a very small mucro, the upper side 
smooth, underneath pubescent, the margins rolled back: floral 
leaves shorter. Petzoles very short and succulent, at first slightly 
pubescent, but becoming at last quite smooth. Stipules very 
small, nearly obsolete, black. Flowers terminating the branches 
in a sort of interrupted spike, of a bright purple. Pedieles 
scarcely half the length of the leaves, clothed with close-pressed 
white hairs. Bractes 2, one on each side of the calyx, lanceo- 
late, acute, keeled and dilated at the base. Calyw# 5-cleft, 2-lip- 
ped, thickly clothed with white close-pressed hairs, the upper lip 
not so deeply cleft as the lower one; the lacinize acute, reflexed 
when the flower is expanded. Veazllum broad, emarginate or 
two-lobed, narrow at the base, of a bright purple with darker 
veins, proceeding from the yellow spot at the base. Al@ or 
wings obovate, slightly eared on one side near the base, with a 
short broadish unguis. Carina short and blunt. Stamens 10, 
all distinct, ascending ; filaments smooth: anthers yellow, two- 
K 2 
