NOTES ON HYBRIDISM IN THE GENUS 

 BRACHYCHITON. 



By Baron Ferd. von Mueller, K.C.M.G., M. & Ph. D , 



F.P.S., &c. 



Cases of Hybridisation among Australian Plants are as yet 

 but few on record. Instances therefore of natural cross-fertiliza- 

 tion, when they come under our notice here, are of particular 

 interest. Through the circumspect kindness of Dr. J. C. Cox, 

 lately, a Hybrid between Br achy chiton populneum and B. acerifolium 

 was brought under my cognizance. It arose in Dr. Cox's brothers 

 garden, where both the parent plants are up-grown ; but it may 

 have been obtained as a seedling from another place, both the 

 indicated Brachychiton, which are beautiful shade trees of ready 

 growth, being much reared in New South Wales. The Bastard- 

 tree attained already a height of 40 feet and a stem diameter of 

 one foot. The leaves differ in a marked manner from those of th-3 

 parental species being of a more or less ovate shape or verging 

 somewhat into a lanceolar form ; but so far as seen by me they 

 are quite lobeless, nor are they conspicuously acuminated. The 

 leaf stalks are considerably elongated and not very slender. The 

 panicle is ample, much like that of B. acerifolium, bearing 

 numerous flowers ; the articulation of the stalklets is at some 

 distance from the calyx also as in B. acerifolium, not generally 

 close to the calyx as in B. populneum. The color of the calyces 

 holds the middle between that of the respective organ of the 

 parent plants ; it is pale yellowish outside much as in B. populneum. 

 but inside crimson and not sprinkled as in B. acerifolium, according 

 to a painted drawing furnished by Mrs. Ford. Fruits, so rarely 

 developed by hybrids, have not been produced. For distinctive 

 appellation in accordance with generally recognised rules the 



