78 



AFFINITIES. 



With E. fieifolia F.v.M. 



Bentham's contrast in the Key (B.F1. iii, p. 199) is — 



Seeds large, not winged (E. calophylla). 



Seed i (very irregularly) winged ... (E. fieifolia). 



This contrast has to be taken philosophically. While the seeds of E. ficijolia 

 appear to usually have more wing than those of E. calophylla, those of the latter 

 species are sometimes not without a winged appendage. 



This species, as far as is known, is related to E. calophylla, but is very distinct 

 in having pale brown, smaller seeds and a transparent wing running down the back 

 as long or longer than the nucleus. The leaves resemble those of certain species of 

 Ficus of the series of F. elastica. (Translation of original description of E. ficijolia.) 



The characteristics by which E. fieifolia can be distinguished from E. calophylla are as follow : — ■ 

 The tree is of less height, the bark is somewhat more deeply furrowed, the leaves are proportionately not 

 quite so broad but longer, the flowers are mostly larger, the calyces assume a reddish hue, the filaments 

 are of a splendid crimson [see my remarks below. — J.H.M.], the fruits less turgid, while the seeds are 

 much paler in colour, have a smaller kernel, and are provided with a conspicuous appendicular membrane. 

 Irrespective of this a very marked difference in the seedlings is observable, as those of E. fieifolia show only 

 slighly or not at all the bristly roughness of E. calophylla, nor are the seedling-leaves inserted above 

 their base to the stalk, as in that species. (" Eucalyptographia," under E. fieifolia.) 



Bentham (B.F1. iii, 256) pointed out that " certain flowering specimens of 

 E. ficijolia are indistinguishable from E. calophylla, which may possibly belong to this 

 species (ficijolia)." 



The seedling of E. ficijolia is described at i, 533, of Lubbock " On Seedlings," 

 and that of E. calophylla at the same place, and also fig. 344. There is a seedling of 

 E. calophylla figured at the back of the plate of E. calophylla in " Eucalyptographia." 

 It is difficult, and perhaps impossible, to lay down important differences between the 

 seedlings of E. fieifolia, calophylla and hcemaloxylon . All are more or less scabrous, 

 with large cotyledon leaves (those of E. calophylla are especially large), and with early 

 peltate leaves. I prefer to leave the matter of seedlings to a subsecpient Part, when 

 those belonging to some hundreds of species can be compared as a whole, which is the 

 true method to elucidate affinities. 



The following notes contrasting E. fieifolia and E. calophylla lay especial stress 

 on the colours of the filaments in the two species, and deal with a hybrid form. 



Everyone who knows Sydney and Melbourne, and who pays attention to horti- 

 cultural matters, must have noticed the great development, during the last few years, 

 of the cultivation of what the ordinary citizen calls " Flowering Gums." By this he 

 means with flowers comparatively large in size and other than white in colour. Some 

 people, a little more definite, simply call them Red-flowering, and many, Scarlet- or 

 Crimson-flowering indiscriminately, using the terms scarlet and crimson as if they 



