224 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
BOTANICAL NOTES. 
By A. A. Hamilton. 
Grevillea acanthifolia, Cunn.—Though this prickly-leaved 
Grevillea exhibits a decided preference for the swamps in 
the higher parts of the Blue Mountains (the writer has not 
noted it at a lower altitude than 1500 feet), it is sufficiently 
adaptable to grow in the Port Jackson district if given a 
marshy environment. Some years ago plants were grown 
from seeds and the seedlings planted in a swampy situation 
in the Centennial Park on the Eastern side of the Waterlily 
Pond. The plants grew as large and flowered and fruited 
’ as freely as in their native habitat. 
Corysanthes pruinosa, Cunn.—A diminutive terrestrial or- 
chid, collected in densely timbered brush country in the 
[lawarra district. The hood-shaped, inflated flower has a 
striking resemblance to a snail, which is accentuated by its 
marking and its situation (the flower is almost sessile) on the 
appressed radical leaf. Bentham (Fl. Austr. 6.35) unites 
this species with (. fimbriata, R. Br., but Fitzgerald in his 
monumental work on Australian Orchids separates them, and 
figures both, giving a tabulated exposition of their differentia] 
characters. It has an exceptionally wide range, being found 
in Vic., Tas., S.A. and W.A. 
Polymeria calycina, R. Br., Cooks River.—A plant not 
often collected, though perhaps not rare. Its resemblance to 
Convolvulus erubescens, Linn., in the field is so marked that 
even an observant collector might be excuscd for passing it 
by as that ubiquitous trailer, the principal point of difference 
being the number of stigmas, which are enclosed in the 
corolla and are not noticed until the flowers are examined. 
Synoum glandulosum, A. Juss.  ‘‘Dogwood.’’* Scar- 
borough, Illawarra.—The genus consists of a single species 
limited to Australia. It has a fairly wide range in the 
coastal area, North and South of Sydney, and is found in- 
land as far as the Blue Mountains. On the coast it frequently 
occurs on the bluffs overhanging the ocean, the specimens 
exhibited being taken from such a position. The ovary of 
this species would well repay the attention of any student 
who could devote the time necessary for an exhaustive study 
of its functions. The seeds, two in each cell, are attached 
by a broad lateral hilum, and half embedded in a fleshy, 
orange-colored arillus, formed by the enlarged placenta. Mr. 
Maiden in his ‘‘Useful Native Plants of Australia,’’ gives 
the aboriginal name of this plant in the Illawarra district 
as “‘Wallaon.”’ 
Wilsonta Backhousii, Hook. Cooks River.—A low, de- 
cumbent plant with a creeping rhizone, growing in masses 
in salt marshes. The foregoing characters are a palpable 
adaptation to an unstable environment. The low growth, 
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