EUCALYPTUS ERYTHROCORYS. 



F. V. M., fragmenta phytographife AustrallsB ii. 33 (1860) ; Bentham, flora Australiensis iii. 258. 



Slirubby or finally arborescent ; brancblets robust, angular ; leaves opposite or some scattered, 

 elongate-lanceolar, slightly curved, their lateral vein moderately spreading, copious and prominent, 

 the intramarginal vein slightly removed from the edge ; stalks axillary, thick, compressed- 

 angular, bearing one to three flowers ; stalklets hardly any ; calyces large, their tube obverse- 

 pyramidal and quadrangular as well as marked with prominent irregular longitudinal lines or 

 farrows, produced into four blunt teeth ; lid red, very depressed, lined by four prominent ridges 

 in the form of a cross, wrinkled, considerably shorter than the tube of the calyx and often slightly 

 broader ; stamens yellow, forming four ]mrcels ; anthers cordate-oval, opening by longitudinal 

 slits ; stigma hardly broader than the style ; fruit very large, bellshaped-hemispherical, 4-celled, 

 at the margined summit first ascending then flat and at the deltoid red valves impressed ; placental 

 axis about twice as long as broad ; sterile seeds partly narrow ; fertile seeds without any mem- 

 branous appendage. 



In stony undulating bushy country between the Irwin-River and Shark-Bay, rather rare. 



Quite an ornamental bush, bearing as even remarkable to the aborigines the name " Illyarie." 

 Leaves shining, equally green on both pages, 3^-7 inches long, in their widest portion f-1 inch 

 broad, very gradually narrowed into the acute apex. Flowerstalks attaining seldom above one 

 inch in length, sometimes shorter. Whole calyx nearly an inch in length ; lid almost twice as 

 broad as high, sometimes raised into a short knob at the centre. Bundles of stamens emerging 

 from four protruding lobes of the disk. Filaments sometimes purplish. Fruit measuring from 

 nearly 1-^ to 2 inches, with 12 longitudinal angular elevations, these ternately convergent at the 

 summit ; valves rather shorter than the convex interstice between them and the margin of the 

 calyx. Fertile seeds much broader than most of the sterile seeds. Flowers and fruits occur of 

 greater size than those delineated on this occasion. 



This species, on account of the stamens united into four bundles alternating with the four 

 teeth of the calyx, belongs to the section Eudesmia, which R. Brown regarded as a distinct genus. 



It differs widely from the few other species of that section in the large size of its flowers and 

 fruits, in the shape and coloration of the lid as well as in the very broad expansion of the summit 

 of its fruit, irrespective of some less conspicuous differences. 



Specific name from the red tinge of the operculum. 



Explanation of Analytic Details. — 1, longitudinal section of unexpanded flower; 2, expanded flowers seen 

 from above ; 3 and 4, front- and back-view of anther ; 5, style with stigma ; 6, longitudinal section of fruit ; 7", 

 transverse section of fruit ; 8, sterile seeds ; 9, fertile seeds ; 10, embryo. 



It may be of some interest to observe, that though the pollen-grains of all Eucalypts hitherto 

 thus far examined are when moistened uniformly tetrahedral and smooth, they differ considerably 

 as regards size in various species. The annexed series of measurements, elaborated under my 

 direction by Mr. Hummel, proves already, tliat the pollen-grains of some Eucalypts may exceed 

 those of otliers nearly thrice in diametric width, and still greater discrepancies may exist within 

 the genus ; such may perhaps aid occasionally in the discrimination of different species. How far 

 such measurements may fluctuate in the same species needs yet further to be traced out, but it is 

 not likely to vary mucli in each particular kind of Eucalypt. 



