Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia Part 34

BLENNODIA.

Cruciferarum genus, prope Matthiolam.

CHAR. GEN.--Calyx clausus, foliolis lateralibus basi saccatis. Petala aequalia, laminis obovatis. Stamina: filamentis edentulis. Ovarium lineare. Stylus brevissimus. Stigma bilob.u.m dilatatum. Siliqua linearis valvis convexiusculis, stigmate coronata, polysperma. Semina aptera p.u.b.e fibroso-mucosa tecta! Cotyledones inc.u.mbentes!

Herba (v. Suffrutex) erecta ramosa canescens, p.u.b.e ramosa; foliis lato-linearibus remote dentatis; racemis terminalibus.

1. BLENNODIA canescens.

LOC. In arenosis depressis.

DESC. Suffruticosa, sesquipedalis, caule ramisque teretibus. Folia vix pollicaria paucidentata. Racemi multiflori, erecti, ebracteati. Flores albicantes. Calyx incano-p.u.b.escens. Petalorum ungues calyce paulo longiores. Stamina 6, tetradynama, filamentis linearibus membranaceis apice sensim angustato.

OBS. This plant has entirely the habit, and in many important points the structure of Matthiola, near which in a strictly natural method it must be placed; differing, however, in having inc.u.mbent cotyledons, and in the mucous covering of its seeds. The mucus proceeds from short tubes covering the whole surface of the testa, each containing a spiral fibre, which seems to be distinct from the membrane of the tube. A structure essentially similar is known to occur generally in several families: to what extent or in what genera of Cruciferae it may exist, I have not ascertained; it is not found, however, in those species of Matthiola which I have examined.

STURTIA.

Malvacearum genus, proximum Gossypio, affine etiam Senrae.

CHAR. GEN.--Involucrum triphyllum integerrimum. Calyx 5-dentatus, sinubus rotundatis. Petala cuneatoobovata, basi inaequilatera. Columna staminum polyandra. Ovaria 5, polysperma. Styli cohaerentes. Stigmata distincta linearia. Pericarpia ... Semina ...

Suffrutex orgyalis glaber; foliis petiolatis obovatis integerrimis; floribus pedunculatis solitariis.

2. STURTIA Gossypioides.

LOC. "In the beds of the creeks on the Barrier Range."--D. Sturt.

DESC. Suffrutex orgyalis glaber. Folia ramorum alterna, diametro unciali, trinervia; petiolo folium subaequanti, basi in stipulam subscariosam adnatam dilatato. Pedunculi vel potius rami floriferi suboppositifolii nec vere axillares uniflori, juxta apicem folio nano petiolato stipulis 2 distinctis stipato instructi. Involucrum foliaceum venosum, foliolis distinctis, cordatis, punctis nigricantibus glandulosis conspersis. Calyx dentibus acutis, sinubus rotundatis. Petala sesquipollicaria, uti calycis tubus glanduloso-punctata glandulis nigricantibus semi-immersis, purpurea basibus atro purpureis margine barbatis. Columna staminum e basi nuda super ad apicem usque antherifera: antheris reniformibus, loculis apice confluentibus. Pollen hispidum.

OBS. Sturtia is no doubt very nearly related to Gossypium, from which it differs in the entire and distinct leaves of its foliaceous involucrum, in the sharp teeth and broad rounded sinuses of the calyx, and possibly also in its fruit and seeds, which are, however, at present unknown. They agree in the texture and remarkable glands of the calyx, and in the structure of the columna staminum. Senra, which like Sturtia, has the foliola of its three-leaved involucrum distinct and entire, differs from it in having its calyx 5-fid with sharp sinuses, in the absence of glands, in the reduced number of stamina, and in its dispermous ovaria.

3. TRIBULUS (Hystrix) lanatus, foliis 8-10-jugis, fructibus undique tectis spinis subulatis longitudine inaequalibus: majoribus sparsis longitudinem cocci superantibus.

LOC. "In collinis arenosis. Lat. 26 degrees." D. Sturt.

DESC. Herba diffusa, sericea, incana. Folium majus cuiusque paris 8-10 jugum, foliolis ovatis. Flores magni. Calyxaestivatione leviter imbricata. Petala calyce duplo longiora. Stamina decem, antheris linearibus.

OBS. I. A species nearly related to T. Hystrix, found on the west coast of Australia, or on some of its islands, in the voyage of the Beagle, may be distinguished by the following character. Tribulus (occidentalis) sericeolanatus, foliis suboctojugis, coccis undique dense armatis: spinis omnibus conico-subulatis longitudine invicem aequalibus. These two species differ from all others in the uniform shape of the spines, which equally cover the whole external surface of the fruit.

OBS. II. The American species of the Linnean genus Tribulus are distinguishable from the rest of the published species, by having ten monospermous cocci, by their persistent calyx, and the absence of glands subtending the 5 filaments opposite to the sepals.

This tribe was originally separated as a genus by Scopoli, under the name of Kallstroemia, which has been recently adopted by Endlicher.

Another tribe exists in the intratropical part of the Australian continent, to which, nearly 40 years ago, in the Banksian Herbarium, I gave the generic name of Tribulopis, and which may readily be distinguished by the following characters.

TRIBULOPIS.

Calyx 5-part.i.tus deciduus. Petala 5. Stamina decem (nunc 5.) Filamenta quinque, sepalis opposita, basi glandula stipata. Ovaria 5, monosperma.

Cocci, praeter tubercula 2 v. 4 baseos, laeves.

Herbae annuoe prostratoe; foliis omnibus alternis!

TRIBULOPIS (Solandri.) foliis bi-trijugis, foliolis subovatis inaequilateris, coccis basi quadrituberculatis.

LOC. In ora orientali intratropica Novae Hollandiae prope Endeavour River, anno 1770. D.D. Banks et Solander.

TRIBULOPIS (angustifolia), foliis 3-4 jugis (raro bijugis), foliolis linearibus, tuberculis baseos coccorum abbreviatis.

LOC. Ad fundum sinus Carpentariae annis 1802 et 3. R. Brown.

TRIBULOPIS (pentandra), foliis bijugis, foliolis oblongo-lanceolatis pari superiore duplo majore, floribus pentandris, petalis lanceolatis.

LOC. In insulis juxta fundum sinus Carpentariae anno 1803. R. Brown.

4. CROTALARIA (Sturtii) tomentosa, foliis simplicibus ovalibus utrinque sericeo-tomentosis, petiolis apice geniculatis, racemis terminalibus multifloris.

LOC. "On the top of the ridges in pure sand, from S. Lat. 28 degrees to 26 degrees." D. Sturt.

DESC. Frutex 2.3-pedalis (D. Sturt). Folia alterna, ovata pa.s.sim ovalia, obtusa, sesquipollicem longa, utrinque velutina; petiolus teres basi vix cra.s.siore apice curvato. Racemus terminalis; pedicellis approximatis calycem vix aequantibus apice bibracteatis. Flores sesquipollicares.

Calyx 5-fidus; laciniis lanceato-linearibus acutis subaequalibus tub.u.m paulo superantibus. Corolla sordide flava, calyce plus duplo major.

Vexillum magnum, basi simplici nec auriculata, late ovatum, acutum. Alae vexillo fere dimidio breviores, basi semicordata. Carina longitudine vexilli, ac.u.minata, basi gibbosa, ibique aperta marginibus tomentosis.

Stamina 10 diadelpha, simplex et novemfidum. Antherae quinque majores lineares, juxta basin affixae; quinque reliquae ovatae, linearibus triplo breviores, inc.u.mbentes. Ovarium lineare, multi-ovulatum. Stylus extra medium et praesertim latere interiore barbatum. Stigma obtusum. Legumen desideratur.

OBS. A species very nearly related to C. Sturtii, having flowers of nearly equal size, and of the same colour and proportion of parts, found in 1818, by Mr. Cunningham, on the north-west coast of Australia, and since in Captains Wickham and Stokes' Voyage of the Beagle; may be distinguished by the following character:--Crotalaria (Cunninghamii) tomentosa, foliis simplicibus ovali-obovatis utrinque sericeo-tomentosis, petiolis apice curvatis, pedunculis axillaribus unifloris.

5. CLIANTHUS (Dampieri) herbaceus prostratus sericeovillosissimus, foliolis oppositis (rarissime alternis) oblongis pa.s.sim lineari-oblongis obovatisve, pedunculis erectis scapiformibus, floribus sub.u.mbellatis, calycibus 5-fidis sinubus acutis, ovariis (leguminibusque immaturis) sericeis.

Clianthus Oxleyi A. Cunningham in Hort. Soc. Transac. II. series, vol. 1.

p. 522.

Donia speciosa Don, Gen. Syst. vol. 2. p. 468.

Clianthus Dampieri Cunningham, loc. cit.

Colutea Novae Hollandiae, &c. Woodward in Dampier's Voy. vol. 3. p. 111.

tab. 4. f. 2.

LOC. "In ascending the Barrier Range near the Darling, about 500 feet above the river." D. Sturt.

OBS. In July, 1817, Mr. Allan Cunningham, who accompanied Mr. Oxley in his first expedition into the Western Interior of New South Wales, found his Clianthus Oxleyi on the eastern sh.o.r.e of Regent's Lake, on the River Lachlan. The same plant was observed on the Gawler Range, not far from the head of Spencer's Gulf by Mr. Eyre in 1839, and more recently by Captain Sturt, on his Barrier Range near the Darling. I have examined specimens from all these localities, and am satisfied that they belong to one and the same species.

In March (not May) 1818, Mr. Cunningham, who accompanied Captain King in his voyages of survey of the coasts of New Holland, found on one of the islands of Dampier's Archipelago, a plant which he then regarded as identical with that of Regent's Lake. This appears from the following pa.s.sage of his MS. Journal:--

"I was not a little surprised to find Kennedya speciosa, (his original name for Clianthus Oxleyi), a plant discovered in July 1817, on sterile bleak open flats, near Regent's Lake, on the River Lachlan, in lat. 33 degrees 13 minutes S. and long. 146 degrees 40 minutes E. It is not common, I could see only three plants, of which one was in flower. This island is the Isle Malus of the French." Mr. Cunningham was not then aware of the figure and description in Dampier above referred to, which, however, in his communication to the Horticultural Society in 1834, he quotes for the plant of the Isle Malus, then regarded by him as a distinct species from his Clianthus Oxleyi of the River Lachlan. To this opinion he was probably in part led by the article Donia or Clianthus, in Don's System of Gardening and Botany, vol. 2. p. 468, in which a third species of the genus is introduced, founded on a specimen in Mr.

Lambert's Herbarium, said to have been discovered at Curlew River, by Captain King. This species, named Clianthus Dampieri by Cunningham, he characterises as having leaves of a slightly different form, but its princ.i.p.al distinction is in its having racemes instead of umbels; at the same time he confidently refers to Dampier's figure and description, both of which prove the flowers to be umbellate, as he describes those of his Clianthus Oxleyi to be. But as the flowers in this last plant are never strictly umbellate, and as I have met with specimens in which they are rather corymbose, I have no hesitation in referring Dampier's specimen, which many years ago I examined at Oxford, as well as Cunningham's, to Clianthus Dampieri. This specimen, however, cannot now be found in his Herbarium, as Mr. Heward, to whom he bequeathed his collections, informs me: nor can I trace Mr. Lambert's plant, his Herbarium having been dispersed.