74 GERANIUMS. 
nation is overthrown in this instance. Eriostemon is separable 
from Boronia by alternate or scattered never opposite leaves, five 
lobes of the calyx, five petals, ten stamens and usually five fruit- 
lets ; but in one Eriostemon (E. virgatus) the division of the 
flowers is quaternary, while in one of our Zierias (Z. veronica) 
the leaves are partly alternate. 
Eriostemon is richest in species among Victorian Rutacez, 
the writer having found eighteen within the limits of this colony. 
Like Boronias they are lovely plants, and both are represented 
also in our alpine flora. Hriostemon received its name, because 
the first detected species have woolly stamens ; beyond Australia 
it has a few congeners in New Zealand and New Caledonia. 
Phebalium, Crowea, Microcybe and Asterolasia are subgenera, in 
the latter of which the ovary becomes reduced to two or three 
cells (in particular species) and the calyx (in one) entirely 
obliterated. All the plants of the genera mentioned are shrubs 
or half-shrubs, very rarely almost herbs, but one Zieria (Z. 
Smithil) will attain in our ferntree-gullies to tree-size. A desert- 
plant of the order, Geijera parviflora, and a noble plant of East 
Gippsland, Acronychia levis, verging to the Orange-tribe, are 
advancing to the height of good-sized trees, evergreen as all the 
native trees of our zone. 
XII._THE GERANIUMS 
AND ALLIED PLANTS, 
Unprer the name of Geraniums are vernacularly comprehended 
three groups of plants, each of which has claims for generic 
distinctions. Thus arose out of the ancient Geranium of Dios- 
corides three separate genera, the modern Geranium, Pelargo- 
nium and Hrodium. The etymology of these three words is 
derived from analogous characteristics of all three ; the fruit of 
true Geraniums being compared to the long-beaked head of a 
