The Scientific Notebooks of German Orchidologist Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Kränzlin

Flora of Australia. 139

Bailey admits that his S. Benthami, and his var. minor of S. virginicus probably form the var. pallida of S. virginicus, recognised by Bentham, and even a cursory examination of the material at the National Herbarium would have shown that the new species was untenable.

Given as new to New South Wales (L. Cudgellico) by Maiden and Betche, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.Wales, 1906, Vol. XXXI, p. 739.

TUNICA PROLIFERA (L.) Scop., var. VELUTINA (T. VELUTINA, Fisch. and Meyer). (Caryophlyllaceae).

This naturalized alien was recorded by Mueller as T. velutina in Vict. Nat. X., p. 145, 1893, and by Reader as T. polifera, in Vict. Nat., XX., p. 88, 1903. Both species are given as valid in the Kew Index, and in Boissier's Flora Orientalis]]. T. velutina differs from T. prolifera mainly in having leaves with smooth edges (instead of minutely toothed), hairy internodes (instead of glabrous), longer leaf-sheaths and smaller seeds. None of these features are constant; hairy speciments may have rough-edged leaves, and some speciments of T. velutina have the lower leaves minutely toothed entirely or in part. The length of the leaf-sheath may vary on one and the same specimen, as may also the size of the seeds. Hence the species must be reduced to a variety of T. prolifera, joined to that species by intervening forms. Most of the Victorian specimens belong to the variety velutina, but some of Mueller's are intermediate in character.

Mount Ararat, Nov., 1883, D. Sullivan; Upper Murray River, C. French, 1886; Clyde Mts., N.S.W., Oct., 1888, W. Bauerlen; Delatite, 1890 and 1891, Rev. R. Thom, Goulbourn River, 1892, W. F. Gates; near Lake Urana, N.S.W., 1894, G. Luehmann, Jnr.; near Seymour, 1902, Mrs. F.M. Reader.