densely plumose outside with yellow hairs, glabrous inside or nearly so. Anthers all perfect. Style-end narrow..
W. Australia. North of Stirling Range, F. Mueller; W. Mount Barren, Maxwell.
14. A. apiculata, R. Br. Prot. Nov. 9, not of Meissn. A procumbent shrub spreading to 2 or 3 ft., the branches slender, silky-villous when young. Leaves divided into 3 to 5 filiform segments usually with a depressed lateral gland at the end, those of the branches often short and nearly glabrous, the floral leaves crowded, often 1 in. long, and ciliate with a few long fine glabrous hairs. Involucres 2 or more together in terminal clusters and nearly sessile, the bracts nearly glabrous. Perianth not above 1⁄2 in. long, villous with short spreading hairs, the laminæ glabrous inside or with very few hairs behind the anthers which are all perfect. Style-end oblong.—A. procumbens, Meissn. in Pl. Preiss. i. 512, ii. 248, and in DC. Prod. xiv. 312; A. Drummondii, Meissn. in Pl. Preiss. i. 514, and in DC. Prod. xiv. 313.
W. Australia. King George's Sound or to the eastward, Baxter, Preiss, n. 589; towards Cape Riche, Harvey; between Swan river and King George's Sound, Drummond, 1st coll. n. 593, 3rd coll. n. 253.
Independently of the fine nearly glabrous foliage and lateral glands (which are not quite constant), this species is readily distinguished from the four precediug ones by the short flowers.
4. STIRLINGIA, Endl.
(Simsia, R. Br. not of Pers.)
Flowers hermaphrodite or male by abortion. Perianth regular, the tube cylindrical, at length separating into distinct segments, recurved above the middle. Anthers all perfect, erect on short thick filaments below the base of the laminæ, cohering round the style when the flower first opens, at length recurved with the perianth-segments, the cells of each anther separated by a broad connective, and the two adjoining cells of two adjoining anthers applied face to face in the bud so as to form a single cell. No hypogynous scales. Ovary sessile, with a single anatropous ovule erect from the base; style filiform with a terminal obtuse or dilated and peltate stigma. Fruit a small dry indehiscent nut, usually broadly obovoid or obconical with a convex or nearly flat top, hirsute all over, the upper hairs usually longer forming a coma.—Undershrubs or shrubs usually glabrous, branching and leafy at the base. Leaves dichotomous or rarely trifid only. Peduncles terminal, leafless, long and simple or more or less branched and paniculate. Flowers small, in globular spikes or heads terminating the branches of the panicle, each flower sessile within a small bract, the rhachis or receptacle cylindrical ovoid or short, usually villous.
The genus is limited to extratropical W. Australia. By the curious conformation of the anthers it connects the Proteea with the Conospemeæ.
Leaf-segments terete, filiform or rigid. | |
Bracts narrow, from half as long to nearly as long as the perianth-tube. Peduncles single headed or rarely divided into 2 or 3 single-headed branches. | |
Peduncles solitary or few, 1 to 11⁄2 ft. long |
1. S. simplex. |
