EUCRYPHIAS, 



73 



EUCRYPHIAS. 



The Eucryphias'vary in stature from medium-sized 

 shrubs to trees as much as 100 feet high, and all of 

 them, though still very rare in cultivation, are plants 

 of great beauty and interest. There are, however, 

 only four species known at present, two being found 

 in Chili and two in Australia and Tasmania. This 

 separation of the two halves of the genus, being 

 supplemented by similar instances (such as Fuchsia 

 and Libertia), is held by geographical botanists to 

 indicate a land connection between the two conti- 

 nents at some remote age. 



The Eucryphias have no known close relatives 

 and their place in the vegetable kingdom conse- 

 quently is doubtful. Sir Joseph Hooker, whom 

 most botanists now follow in the matter, places them 

 in the Rose family, but other authorities have vari- 

 ously put them with the Hypericums (whose flowers 

 are very similar), the Saxifragas, and the Limes. 

 The foliage affords another method of dividing the 

 genus, two species having their leaves simple (or 

 undivided) and two divided (pinnate). It is curious 

 that one of each kind occurs in Chili and Australia, 

 as the following conspectus shows : — 



Chilian. 

 r. E. pinna tifolia ; pinnate leaves. 



2. E. cordifolia ; simple leaves. 



Australian. 



3. E. Moorei ; pinnate leaves, 



4. E. Bittardieri ; simple leaves. 



With the exception of E. pinnatifolia, which is 

 sometimes deciduous in this country, they are all 

 evergreen. E. Moorei is not in cultivation, and of 

 the remainder E. pinnatifolia is the only one that 

 has succeeded well in the open air. I do not know 

 whether the others have been tried out-of-doors in 

 the milder parts of these islands, but they are cer- 

 tainly worth trying. They should be planted in a 

 rather light soil, in which there is a proportion of 

 leaf soil and peat. Like most Chilian and Tasma- 

 nian plants, they require mild and moist conditions. 

 During the hot, dry seasons that have so fre- 

 quently been experienced during the last decade, it 

 has, in inland districts at any rate, been difficult to 

 establish E. pinnatifolia, but it is certainly worthy of 

 every care that can be given it. 



E. Billaraieri. — The only time I have seen this 

 in flower was in 1891, when it flowered in a green- 

 house at Kew. It is an evergreen tree occurring 

 wild at various elevations on the mountains of Tas- 

 mania. It has small, narrow, oblong leaves, 1 to 3 

 inches long, not divided or cut in any way ; they 

 are dark, glossy green above, grey beneath, and of 

 firm, somewhat leathery, texture. The flowers are 

 four-petaled, white, short-stalked, and from 1 to 



2 inches across, being smaller and less showy than 

 those of E. pinnatifolia. 



At the lower limits of its distribution inTasma- 

 nia this Eucryphia is a tree occasionally 100 feet in 

 height. Higher up the mountains it becomes much 

 smaller and shrubby. It is this more alpine form 

 that has flowered at Kew, and which Sir J. Hooker 

 has distinguished as variety Milliganii. For grow- 

 ing outside it would, no doubt, be best. It would 

 probably thrive against a wall, or, in Cornwall, quite 

 unprotected. 



E. cordifolia. — Although much commoner in a 

 wild state than its nearest neighbour, E, pinnatifolia 

 and introduced to this country in 1851, this species 

 has not spread in gardens so much. For one thing 

 it is not so hardy. It has been planted against a wall 

 at Kew, but has never become really established 

 there. From E. pinnatifolia and E. Billardieri it is 

 abundantly distinct. Its leaves are oblong, i-| to 



3 inches long, crenated at the margin, heart-shaped 

 at the base, dull green and downy, especially on the 

 stalk and midrib. The young wood is also downy. 

 The flowers are white, and produced singly in the 

 leaf axils. The tree is said to be abundant in the 

 island of Chiloe and on the mainland in Valdivia. 



E. Moorei. — For many years E. Billardieri was 

 the only species known to exist in Australasia. The 

 late Sir F. Mueller, however, found a second species 

 about a quarter of a century ago in New South 

 Wales, and gave it the above name. There is little 

 to be said about it, for it has never, so far as I know, 

 been introduced to Britain. In any case it is pro- 

 bably less hardy than any of the other three. Like 

 the Chilian E. pinnatifolia it has pinnate leaves, but 

 the leaflets are more numerous, and the flowers are 

 white. 



E. pinnatifolia. — Introduced to this country from 

 Chili by Messrs. Veitch about thirty years ago, this 

 species has proved to be by far the most valuable of 

 the three Eucryphias in cultivation. Not so easy to 

 establish in new quarters as most shrubs are, it 

 nevertheless appears, when once well started, to be 

 quite hardy in a climate not more severe than that 

 of the London district. In its first home in Eng-- 

 land — the CoombeWood Nursery — it has succeeded 

 perfectly, and a specimen there, now some 10 feet 

 or more high, is still, perhaps, the finest in Britain. 

 Even in its native country it is very rare, and has a 

 very local habitat. It has only been found on the 

 Cordillera of Conception, and is called " Nirrhe " 

 by the Chilians. 



Gay, the Chilian botanist, makes the first men- 

 tion of this shrub in 1845. He round it on the 

 rocky banks of the River Biobio, where in its largest 



