572 



swingle: new genus of citrous fruits 



Leaves medium-sized or small; fruits 4-7-eelled, not ribbed. 



Fruits round, rough-skinned, 2.5-6.5 cm. in diameter, 5- (rarely 

 6- or 7-) celled; juvenile leaves linear, borne on flexuose 



branches 3. M. australis 



Fruits long and slender; juvenile leaves very small, oval or ovate, 

 on stiff spreading branchlets. 

 Fruits oval, 5-6.5 cm. X 2.5-3.3 cm., rough-skinned, 5-celled; 

 mature leaves broadly rhombic, medium-sized, 2.5-4.5 



cm. long, 1.2-2.5 cm. broad 2. M. Garrowayi 



Fruits cylindric-fusiform, 5-10 cm. X 1.5-2.5 cm., smooth- 

 skinned; mature leaves small, obovate, cuneiform or rhombic, 

 2-4 cm. long, 1.2-2 cm. broad 1. M. australasica 



THE FINGER LIME 



The finger lime, native to the mountain scrubs of the coastal region 

 of northern New South Wales and Queensland, has been named Citrus 

 australasica by F. Mueller. It is the type of the genus Microcitrus. 



1. Microcitrus australasica (F. Muell.) Swingle. 

 Citrus australasica F. Muell. Fragm. Phytogr. Austr. 1: 26. 1858; 



2:178. 1861. 





Fig. 1. M. australasi- 

 ca. Seedling showing 

 hypogeous cotyledons 

 and alternate cataphylls 

 merging into juvenile 

 foliage leaves. Natural 

 size. 



Type locality: "In nemoribus circum sinum 

 Moreton Bay," Queensland, Australia. 



Mueller's description was based on flowering 

 specimens, but apparently none of this particu- 

 lar collection has as yet been sent to Europe or 

 America; consequently it has not been possible 

 to examine it. Two or three years later Muel- 

 ler referred to this species fruits of the finger 

 lime collected by Beckler on the Clarence River. 

 The original description is not sufficiently de- 

 tailed to make it certain that it applies to 

 the finger lime rather than to the Australian 

 round lime, which also occurs at Moreton Bay; 

 and when Mueller referred the fruits of the 

 finger lime to this species he was apparently 

 unaware of the fact that there were two species 

 occurring in the same region. As it has not 

 been possible for the writer to examine the type 

 specimen it is necessary for the present to ac- 

 cept Mueller's determination which, it should 

 be said; is concurred in by F. M. Bailey,^ J. H. 



3 Bailey, F. M. Queensl. Flora, 1: 215. 1899. 



