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   ON ARAUJA ALBENS, Don.

   BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS, F.L.S., F.G.S., &c., &c.

At the close of the month of January of this year, the Hon. W. Macleay F.L.S., Hon. Secretary of this Society, called my attention to a peculiar asclepediaceous twiner which had suddenly made its appearance in his shrubbery. On examination I found it to be Arauja albens, Don., which is thus described by G. Don, (Gen. Hist. Dichlam. Vol. 4, p. 149). Herbaceous, leaves acute at the apex, cordately truncate at the base, white and pruinose beneath. Flowers dichotomously cymose. Twining shrub. Native of Brazil in the province of St. Paul. He further states that this species is made the type of a new genus Physianthus by Von. Martius (Nova genera et species plantarum quas in itinere Brasilian collegit ab annis 1817. 1820). Mr. Bentham in the Flora Australiensis, vol. 4, p. 326, mentions this plant as one of the introduced Asclepiads which he understood had spread from gardens and become naturalized, in the neighbourhood of Moreton Bay. I am informed by Mr. Bailey, who has given much attention to the subject, that it does not occur in Moreton Bay or near Brisbane, and this is the first time I have met with it at Port Jackson, though doubtless it is common in some parts of the colony. I have thought this instance of the gradual spread of a tropical plant as far south as this city is worthy of record, and where no doubt it will soon make itself a home under the

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favorable influences of our equal warm climate. The genus is named after Araujo a Portuguese botanist, and numbers thirteen species which are natives of tropical and subtropical America. In Walp. Ann. v. 501 the species is referred to Von Martius, genus Schubertia.