Page:London Journal of Botany, Volume 2 (1843).djvu/171

 not happily given to any particular plant of the genus Drosera, as there are eleven or twelve species here, all exhibiting equal tendency to form bulbs with the one so called; and stolonifera is still more inapplicable, as the particular individual is not stoloniferous. Three-fourths of our Droseras inhabit the most arid spots in this most arid country; and even those which are not bulbous, resist the heat and drought better than most plants.

"I send you a species of Melaleuca, named M. Leakei by Mr. Preiss, upon which Mr. Leake particularly desires your opinion, as to whether it has hitherto been undescribed; since Mr. Preiss's situation in this colony rendered it difficult for him to ascertain positively whether a plant was new, or had been discovered previously by British botanists."

"Having recently mentioned to you a very remarkable plant, which is found to the south of the Vasse Inlet, and which from the few imperfect specimens I had seen of it, appeared to me like a new species of Dasypogon, I am anxious to inform you, that having had an opportunity of examining this plant in a growing state, I find my conjecture to be correct. It attains a height of 15 feet, and the circumference of its stem, after the leaves have been burnt off by the bush fires, is 9 inches. The leaves are about three feet long and 2 inches broad at their insertion, gradually tapering so as to be half that width (namely 1 inch) in the middle, and coming to a point. The flower-stalks measure nearly a yard long, and are surmounted with heads of flowers smaller than in D. bromeliæfolius, and hispid, but not rough, as in that species. They are about twelve or fifteen in number, and produced from the axils of the upper leaves. In habit, this plant resembles D. bromeliæfolius, and creeping at the roots, appears to grow in groups or patches, the young plants bearing so strong a resemblance to a pine-apple, that it would take an experienced eye to detect the difference. To this highly