OBS.  I was at first inclined to consider this plant as a genus distinct from Ptilotus, more, however, from the remarkable difference in habit than from any important distinction in the flower, for its character would have chiefly consisted in the great size of its lateral bracheae, and in the form of its antherae.

In a small collection formed during the voyage of Captains Wickham and Stokes, there is a plant very nearly related to, and perhaps not specifically distinct from Ptilotus latifolius, but having narrower leaves.  It was found on one of the islands of Dampier’s Archipelago.

26.  Neurachne (paradoxa) glaberrima, culmo dichotomo, foliis rameis abbreviatis, fasciculis paucifloris, glumis perianthiisque imberbibus valvula exteriore cujusve floris septemnervia.

LOC.  Nulla indicatio loci v. stationis, in Herbario.  D. Sturt.

DESC.  Gramen junceum, facie potius Cyperaceae cujusdam.  Folia radicalia in specimine unico viso defuere; ramos subtendentia abbreviata, vagina aperta ipsum folium superante; floralia subspathiformia sed foliacea nec membranacea.  Fasciculi pauciflori:  spiculae cum pedunculo brevissimo articulatae et solubiles, et subtensae bractea nervosa carinata ejusdem circiter longitudinis.  Gluma bivalvis biflora, nervosa, acuta, mutica; valvulae subaequales septemnerviae; exterioris nervis tribus axin occupantibus sed distinctis reliquis per paria a marginibus et axilibus subaequidistantibus; interioris nervis aequidistantibus, externis margine approximatis.  Perianthium inferius (exterius), bivalvis, neuter; valvula exterior septemnervis, exteriori glumae similis textura forma et longitudine; valvula interior (superior) angustior pauloque brevior, dinervis, nervis alatis marginibus veris latis induplicatis.  Perianthium superius hermaphroditum, paulo brevius, pergamineo-membranaceum, nervis dilute viridibus; valvula exterior quinquenervis, acuta, concava; interior ejusdem fere longitudinis, dinervis.  Stamina 3, filamentis linearibus.  Ovarium oblongum, imberbe.  Styli duo.  Stigmata plumosa, pallida?

OBS.  Neurachne paradoxa, founded on a single specimen, imperfect in its leaves and stem, but sufficiently complete in its parts of fructification, differs materially in habit from the original species, N. alopeuroides, as well as from N. Mitchelliana of Nees, while these two species differ widely from each other in several important points of structure.

* * * * *

In undertaking to give some account of the more remarkable plants of Captain Sturt’s collection, it was my intention to have entered in some detail into the general character of the vegetation of the interior of Australia, south of the Tropic.

I am now obliged to relinquish my original intention, so far as relates to detail, but shall still offer a few general remarks on the subject.

These remarks will probably be better understood, if I refer, in the first place, to some observations published in 1814, in the Botanical Appendix to Captain Flinders’s Voyage.