ERIOSTEMON SCABRUM. 
(Rough Eriostemon.) 
Class. 
DECANDRIA. 
Order, 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
RUTACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx five-parted, perma- 
nent. Petals five, marcescent as well as the stamens. 
Stamens ten, the five opposite the petals shortest, all 
shorter than the petals, free, flat, hispid, fringed, 
tapering to the apex into a thread, which bears the 
anthers. Anthers heart-shaped, appendiculate at the 
apex. Style five-furrowed, very short, hispid or smooth , 
terminated by a five-furrowed stigma. Fruit of five 
carpels, which are joined together at the base, each 
containing one, rarely two seeds.— Don's Gardening 
and Botany. 
Specific Character. — Plant a dwarf evergreen 
shrub. Leaves linear, acute, alternate, covered with 
minute asperities, many-veined, dull green, rather 
large. Flowers axillary ; peduncles one, sometimes 
two-flowered. Calyx regular, segments broad, bluntly 
ovate. Corolla polypetalous. Petals oblong, whitish, 
deeply tinged with pink. 
The present, till now unpublished species, is a member of an unassuming but 
very attractive genus of hardy greenhouse plants. It has long been in the collection 
of the Messrs. Loddiges, of the Hackney Nursery, who imported seeds from Sidney, 
New South Wales, many years ago. Like E. buxifolium, it flowers long and very 
freely in spring and summer, and though its flowers are not quite so large, it is 
superior to that species in being devoid of its stiffness, and rigidly formal appearance, 
but has not its lively green foliage. In habit it is rather dwarf, branches much, and 
in a free and elegant manner. 
There are many small-leaved, small-flowered plants, and which do not grow 
naturally to a great size — of which E. buxifolium and scabrum are instances — that, 
under cultivation, are grown to and maintained as very large specimens, as though as 
such they were in a state of greater perfection. But it is an erroneous idea to 
suppose they are ; for, though in age free production of bloom distinguishes them, 
they have lost that vigour, rude health, fineness of bloom, and robust disposition 
which constituted their peculiar charm. And more than this, though their flowers 
are numerous, they are small and enfeebled, both as regards texture and brilliancy 
of colour. The foliage, too, is produced small and sparingly, and the whole plant wears 
a debilitated aspect. An occasional specimen of the foregoing description may be, 
for the sake of variety, advantageously kept, but such will not bear comparison with 
those that are in the prime of their existence, delighting in rudeness of health and 
vigour. 
