213. GREVILLEA ROBUSTA SILKY OAK, GREVILLEA. 35 



GENUS GREVILLEA, R. BR. 



Leaves alternate and of many forms. Flowers perfect, mostly in pairs, in 

 racemes or umbel-like clusters, rarely reduced to a single pair; calyx with four 

 recurved sepals; petals wanting; stamens consist of four anthers sessile upon the 

 sepals; pistil solitary with generally stipitate, 2-ovuled ovary and a single long 

 filiform style which is curved downward in the bud, the loop protruding first 

 from a slit between two of the sepals, and the dilated summit being released 

 afterwards. Fruit a coriaceous (rarely woody) and usually oblique follicle, dehis- 

 cent along the upper margin: seeds one or two, often winged. 



A genus of nearly 200 species of trees and shrubs confined almost exclusively 

 to Australia. The name is given in compliment to C. F. Greville, a patron of 

 botany. 



213. GREVILLEA ROBUSTA. 

 SILKY OAK, GREVILLEA. 



Ger., Starke Grevillea; Fr., Grevillearobuste; Sp., Grevillearobusta. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves pinnate, 6-12 in. long, with 11-21 leaflets. 

 which are deeply and irregularly incisely lobed, having incurved margins, and 

 are glabrous or nearly so above and silvery pubescent beneath. Flowers (in early 

 spring) bright orange and turning to one side of the axis in glabrous racemes 

 which are 8-5 in. long and solitary or clustered on short leafless branchlets; pedi- 

 cels about ^ in. long; stipe somewhat oblique; sepals four, long spatulate, bearing 

 the anthers near their summits and finally falling away after liberating the retained 

 summit of the style; style about | in. long, with small stiarmatic disk somewhat 

 oblique. Fruit a very oblique follicle about | in. long, tipped with the long tail- 

 like style and containing two seeds winged all round. 



The specific name, robusta, is from the Latin, descriptive of the robust habit of 

 the tree as compared with other representatives of the genus. 



A highly ornamental and graceful tree of very rapid growth and 

 well adapted to street-side and park adornment in the Southwest. In 

 it> native land it attains the height of 100 ft. (30 m.) or more, but 

 only small or medium-size trees are yet to be found in this country. 



HABITAT. Indigenous to the subtropical regions of eastern Aus- 

 tralia, Xew South Wales and Queensland, and naturalized about some 

 of the cities and villages of southern California. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood rather light, soft, elastic, easily 

 splitting, durable, with numerous conspicuous medullary rays, quite 

 uniformly distributed ducts and annual r.ings not well defined. It is 

 of a light reddish color with lighter sap-wood and of peculiar beauty 

 owing to the conspicuous medullary rays the " silver grain" of 

 wood-workers. It is on account of these conspicuous medullary rays 

 that the name " Oak " has been wrongly applied to this tree. Specific 

 O'/w/Vy, 0.56i; Wtifjld per Cubic Foot, about 36 Ibs. 



USES. The wood is in demand in Australia for the manufacture 

 of casks, butter boxes, etc., and in cabinet-making. 



The tree in California as yet is mainly important as a handsome and 

 graceful ornamental tree, well adapted to arid regions owing to its 



