185 



OX A EUCALYPT HYBRID {E. CALOPHYLLA x E. 



FICI FOLIA). 



By J. H. Maiden, F.R.8., F.L.S. 



Everyone who knows Sydney aiid Melbourne, and who pays 

 attention to horticultural matters, must have noticed the great 

 development, during the last few years, of the cultivation of 

 what the ordinary citizen calls " Flowering-Cilums." By this he 

 means with flowers comparatively large in size and other than 

 white in colour. Some people, a little more definite, simply call 

 them Red-flowering, and many, >Scar]et- or Crimson-flowering 

 indiscriminately, using the terms scarlet and crimson as if they 

 were interchangeable, just as they are said to be both "red." As 

 one to whom flowers of various kinds are often sent I find that, 

 as often as not, when a man writes "scarlet," he means " crim- 

 son," and vice versa. In the case of trees like Eucalypts and 

 Kurrajongs, which include both scarlet and crimson flowers, the 

 confusion may be inconvenient. 



Colo^ir of Jloivers (fiJaments). 



The colour of the filaments of E.Jicifolia F.v.M., is not given 

 in Mueller's original description, but is stated to be "crimson" 

 in " Eucalyptographia," in the first half of the formal descrip- 

 tion, but in the second half it is described as " beautifully 

 cinnabar-red, occasionally varying to a lighter colouration, but 

 never very pale." Further down, in contrasting E .Jicifolia with 

 E. calophylla, he says, "the filaments {oi E. Jici/olia) are of a 

 splendid crimson." This may be carelessness, but it probably 

 arises from a not very clear knowledge of English terms for the 

 colours concerned. 



I have received from Dr. G. P. U. Prior, Mental Hospital, 

 Rydalmere, near Sydney, flowers which are true E. ficifolia. 

 They are bright scarlet in colour or, in the language of Plate No. 

 79 of Rep. de Couleurs, bright fiery-red or russet-orange. 



