DESCRIPTION. 



CCLIII. E. erythrocorys F.v.M. 



In Fragm. ii, 33 (I860.). 

 Following is a translation of the original description : — ■ 



Shrubby, leaves opposite, thickly coriaceous, long and narrowly lanceolate, somewhat falcate or 

 slightly curved, imperforate, densely and spreadingly penniveined, with long petioles, the intramarginal 

 vein somewhat distant from the edge; the peduncles thick, compressed, generally three-flowered, the 

 calyxes large and sub-sessile, calyx-tube obpyramidate-tetragonous, plicate-costate, at the angles with 

 a short apiculate tooth, several times longer than the scarlet operculum, depressad at the vertex, quadri- 

 costate at the angles, swollen and wrinkled, fruits very large, very broadly campanulate, the top convex, 

 deeply marked in front of the very rounded indentations of the margin, and broadly surrounding the 

 orifice of the four-celled capsule; the valves red, converging, sunk below the vertex of the fruit, seeds 

 winged. 



At the Murchison River and toward Shark's Bay, in rocky plains. 



A shrub 8-10 feet high, called " Illyarie " by the natives, by whom it is named on account of its 

 ornamental character. Branches somewhat terete. Branchlets compressed-tetragonous, sturdy. Leaves 

 of the same colour on both sides, shining, 3.V to 7 inches long, under § to 1 inch broad, slightly pointed at 

 the base and very much. so at the apex; veins prominent. Peduncles about 1 inch long. Buds about 

 1 inch long or slightly shorter, contracted towards the base. Calyx tube dark green, bicostate on each 

 side, from whence it is somewhat plicate. Operculum twice as broad as deep, cinnabar-red from the 

 observation of the finder, preserving the red colour remarkably when dried, sometimes with and sometimes 

 without a small umbo. Filaments innumerable, the collector has observed them to be purple, in dry 

 specimens in a young state they were yellowish-green and half an inch shorter. Limbs four, confluent; the' 

 peduncles very thick, semi-orbicular, corresponding with the sides of the calyx-tube. Anthers sub-ovate, 

 bearing a conspicuous gland at the back of the apex. Pollen golden. Fruits about 1-J inch long and broad, 

 twelve-ribbed, ribs confluent in threes at the apex ; flat top of the width of the orifice, undulate, smooth ; 

 vertex of the capsule itself somewhat smooth, valves acuminate when contracted. Seeds li to 2i lines long, 

 some are sterile and angular-clavate, others half renate or half-round or deltoid, always smooth ; I have 

 not seen ones bearing the embryo. One of the most magnificent species of the genus ; it now seems to have 

 been known to Drummond (compare Hooker, Kew Misc., v, 121). I have hardly seen the flowers well 

 opened; if the stamens, on the observation of Drummond, are collected in bundles of four, then the species 

 should be added to the EudesraieEe. 



Druminond's earlier account is as follows : — 

 ■' A square-capsuled opposite-leaved Eucalyptus, not yet seen in flower, grows among the hills near 

 Dundarangan ; and a beautiful yellow-flowered Eucalyptus grows on the limestone hills to the west of the 

 Valley of the Lakes ; it grows to a tree from 20 to 30 feet high, the leaves resemble those of the Red Gum 

 (E. calophylla), they are hispid on the young shoots, glabrous on the flowering branches, they are always 

 opposite in vigorous growth, sometimes alternate on old stunted trees;, the cups are of a bright scarlet 

 colour, and have a verrucose appearance ; when the capsule expands in a quadrangular form, the angles 

 carry with them the stamens in four divisions ; the seed-vessels are nearly as large as those of the Red Gum. 

 The scarlet cups, fine yellow flowers, and opposite shining leaves of this tree make it one of the finest species 

 of the genus." James Drummond in Hooker's Journal of Botany, vol. 5, p. 121, 1853. 



From Bentham we learn that this description applies to Drummond's 6th Coll. 

 Xo. 70. fragments of which I have figured at figs. \a and lb, Plate 184. 



Bentham (B.F1. iii, 258) re-described the species in the following words :— 

 A shrub of 8 to 10 (Oldfidd) or a tree of 20 to 30 feet (Drummond). Leaves mostly opposite or nearly 

 so, or the upper ones alternate, all petiolate, long-lanceolate or broadly linear, often above 6 inches long, 



