Metrosiderus.] 
LI. MYRTACE^. 
641 
Pedicels almost lin. long. Flower-bud ovate, acute, slightly velvety. Calyx- 
lobes 4, 1 to 1J line long; tube very short. Petals 4, semiovate-rotund, about 
14 line diameter, hairy on the back. Stamens 5 lines long, white like the petals, 
soon falling. Anthers yellow, ovate, renate-curvate, opening in two longitudinal 
slits. Stigma very minute.- Capsule as large as a pea, crustaceous. Seeds 
brown, almost rhomboid-ovate, trigonis, or often flattened. 
Hab.: Gilbert .River, Cave Creek, R. Daintree (F. v. M. l.c.) 
20. XANTHOSTEMON, F. v. M. 
(Yellow stamens.) 
(Fremya, Brongn. and Gris.) 
Calyx-tube broadly campanulate or open, adnate to the ovary at the base ; 
lobes 4 or 5, slightly imbricate, often unequal. Petals 4 or 5, spreading. Stamens 
indefinite, free or slightly united at the base, in one or more series much exceed- 
ing the petals ; filaments often rigid ; anthers versatile or, from a dilatation of 
the connective round the filament, apparently attached by the base, the cells 
parallel, opening longitudinally. Ovary enclosed in the calyx-tube, half inferior 
or free except the broad base, 2 to 6-celled, with numerous ovules in each cell, 
closely packed in a single ring round a clavate or peltate placenta ; style filiform 
with a small stigma. Capsule free except the broad base, seated on the expanded 
calyx, or half enclosed in the cup-shaped calyx-tube, opening loculicidally in 2 to 
6 valves. Seeds flat or angular ; testa thin ; cotyledons broad, flat or folded over 
each other, longer than the straight or incurved radicle. — Trees or shrubs. 
Leaves alternate, or opposite and alternate in one species, penni veined. Flowers 
in dense cymes on terminal or axillary peduncles, or (in species not Australian) 
solitary or nearly so. Bracts and bracteoles usually very small or none. 
Besides the three Queensland species, there are a considerable number in New Caledonia. The 
genus has since been reunited by F. v. Mueller with Metrosideros, which it closely resembles. 
The constantly alternate leaves, with the insertion and arrangement of the ovules, seem, how- 
ever, to justify the maintaining it either as a genus or section at least as distinct as Syncarpia, 
Lysicarpus, and the non-Australian Cloezia , Tepuaiia, and Spermolepis. — Benth. 
Leaves acuminate, 4 to bin. long. Calyx above 3 lines diameter, half 
enclosing the capsule 1. X. chrysantluis. 
Leaves ovate-lanceolate, 3 to Sin. long. Flowers in racemose panicles. 
Capsule somewhat globose. Seeds 1 or 2 in each cell, thick, 3 or 4 lines long 2. X. pachyspermus. 
Leaves opposite or here and there alternate, oval-oblong, 2 to 4in. long. 
Peduncles J to lin. long in the upper axils. Capsule nearly globose, Jin. 
diameter. Seeds numerous, flat 3. A', oppositijolius. 
1. X. chrysanthus (golden-flowered), F. v. M. Herb.; Benth. FI. Austr. iii. 
268. “ Choolo-choolo,” Barron River,,/. F. Haile;/ ; “ Currijello,” Johnstone 
River, G. Y. Hardin;/. A tall handsome tree with a fibrous bark, the branchlets 
somewhat hoary. Leaves lanceolate or elliptical, acuminate or almost acute, 
4 to 6in. long, narrowed into a short petiole. Peduncles in the upper axils about 
Jin. long, bearing each a dense cyme of 5 to 10 rather large flowers of a golden 
yellow. Calyx-tube broadly campanulate, 3 to 3J lines diameter, somewhat 
enlarged and half enclosing the fruit ; lobes ovate- triangular, shorter than the tube 
and half as long as the orbicular petals. Stamens 20 to 25, in a single series, 
the longest nearly lin. long ; anthers oblong versatile, the connective scarcely 
thickened. Ovary more than half superior, usually 3-celled, with numerous flat 
ovules closely packed in a single whorl round a peltate somewhat clavate placenta. 
Style very long, not at all immersed. Capsule about 5 lines diameter. Seeds 
few perfect, flat, with a thin testa ; cotyledons broad, 2-lobed, conduplicate, more 
or less enclosing the incurved radicle ; sterile seeds numerous, of the same shape, 
but hard and homogeneous. — Metrosiderus chrysantha , F. v. M. Fragm. iv. 159. 
Hab.: Along streams, Rockingham Bay, Johnstone River, and other parts of northern 
Queensland. 
