159 
No. 243. 
Geijera parviflora Lindl 
The Wilga. 
(Family RU FACE^E ) 
Botanical description. Genus, Geijera. See p. 155. 
Botanical dCSCription.-^Species, parviflora Lindl., iii Mitchell's Tropical Australia, 
p. 102. 
A tall shrub or small tree, with slender, erect or pendulous branches, glabrous, or the inflorescence 
and young parts slightly hoary. Leaves linear, acute or obtuse, 3 to 6 inches long, and rarely above 
3 lines broad, coriaceous, narrowed into a rather short petiole, the midrib prominent underneath. 
Flowers and fruit of G. salicifolia, or the flowers sometimes, but not always, rather smaller 
(B.F1. i, 364). 
Supposed Variety. Var. (?) crassifolia. 
Leaves 1 to 2 inches long, very obtuse or retuse, thick, with the midrib scarcely conspicuous. 
Perhaps a distinct species. Eriostemon linearifolium DC., Prod, i, 720; Zanthoxylum australasicum 
A. Juss. in Mem. Mus. Par. xii, 503. 
South Australia. Near Adelaide, Herb. Hooker; Spencer's Gulf, F. Mueller; South Coast, R. Brown; 
isles of St. Francis, Herb. Mus. Par. 
Western Australia. King George's Sound, Maclean (B.F1. i, 365). 
This is the coastal form, as referred to under " Habitat," p. 162. It does not 
seem to me a useful variety, although its seaside environment certainly causes it to 
have thicker leaves. 
Botanical Name. Geijera, see p. 156; parviflora, from two Latin words 
signifying " Small-flowers," because, in the words of Bentham, the flowers of this species, 
as compared with G. salicifolia, " are sometimes, but not always, rather smaller." 
Vernacular Name. Its common name is. "Wilga," doubtless of aboriginal 
origin. It is sometimes known as " Willow " for obvious reasons. One writer says, 
" The leaves are long, narrow, and pendant, and it is commonly called the Australian 
Willow." 
A Queensland correspondent sent it to me under the name " Peppermint," and 
this is doubtless how such a name came about. Mitchell, in Journ. Trop. Austra., 102, 
