Metrosideros. icosandria monogynia. 479 



lyx form a perfect imitation of a speak injsr trumpet. Calyx 

 narrow-campanulatc, obscurely four or five-toothed. Pe- 

 tals four or five, round, small, sessile. Filaments numer- 

 ous, much lar^^er than the petals. Germ three-celled. I 

 have not found the ripe nor even full grown seed vessel. 

 Style rather shorter than the filaments. Stigma acute. 



4 M. linearis. Smith, in Trans. Linn. Soc. 3. p. 271. 



Shrubby. Leaves scattered, linear, channelled, acute, 

 rigid. Flowers crowded round the branchlets, a little be- 

 low their trifid apices, some of them axillary. 



This beautiful plant w as reared in the Botanic garden 

 at Calcutta, from seed sent by Colonel Patterson from 

 New South Wales in 1800. In seven years the plants 

 were six or eight feet high, stout and rigid. Flower- 

 ing time in Bengal, April and May ; the seeds require 

 above a year to ripen. 



Stem nearly erect, about as thick as a man*s wrist. 

 Baric dark-coloured, and rather scabrous. Branches few, 

 scattered, stiflf and straight ; the ligneous parts ash-co- 

 loured, the tender ones downy. Leaves scattered, sessile, 

 linear, rigid, channelled, from two to three inches long, 

 and an eighth of an inch in breadth. Flowers crowded 

 round the branchlets below the leaves of the same year, 

 sessile, some of them are axillary, and in that case solitary. 

 Calyx urceolate ; margin five-cleft ; segments reniforra, 

 deciduous. Petals five, greenish, nearly round, villous. 

 Filaments inserted on a rim, (within the petals) round the 

 mouth of the calyx, many times longer than the petals, of 

 a bright crimson, and from their number, size, and length, 

 giving that colour to the whole flower, though the petals 

 and calyx are green. Germ more than semisupera, being 

 attached to the bottom of the calyx only, round, hairy, ge- 

 nerally three-celled, though I have found some with four, 

 each containing numerous, very minute seeds attached to 

 a large convex receptacle in the inner angle of the cell. 



