Finschia — A Genus of "Nut” Trees of the Southwest Pacific 
C. T. White 1 
INTRODUCTION 
A PLANT FAMILY with a most interesting and 
intriguing distribution is Proteaceae, which finds 
its greatest development in Australia (650 
species) on the one hand and South Africa (300 
species) on the other, though the two countries 
have no genera in common. Practically all the 
South African species and the vast majority of 
Australian ones are markedly xerophytic. The 
largest genus, Grevillea R. Br., consists mainly 
of xerophytic shrubs or small trees but a few 
are large trees found in the rain forests of 
tropical and subtropical eastern Australia, New 
Guinea, and New Caledonia. In the southwest 
Pacific area the family finds its greatest develop- 
ment in northeastern Australia, where trees be- 
longing to it provide the great bulk of cabinet 
timbers known in the trade as "Silky Oaks.” 
There is close affinity between the Proteaceae of 
eastern Australia and of western South America 
as illustrated by the genera Embothrium Forst. 
which has four species in South America, two 
in Australia, and one in New Guinea, and 
Lomatia R. Br. which has four species in South 
America and eight in Australia. The endemic 
Australian genus Telopea R. Br. is separated 
from Embothrium Forst. on very slender 
grounds, and Diels (1916: 200), with some 
doubt, records the genus Fuplassa Salisb., other- 
wise consisting of eight South American species, 
as Papuan and Australian ( one species each ) . 
An outstanding feature of the flora of the 
rain-forest belt of northeastern Australia is the 
number of monotypic or very small genera of 
Proteaceae developed in it, e. g., Austromuellera 
C. T. White, Buckinghamia F. Muell., Cardwellia 
1 Government Botanist, Brisbane, Queensland, Aus- 
tralia. Manuscript received July 9, 1948. 
F. Muell., Carnarvonia F. Muell., Darlingia F. 
Muell., Hollandaea F. Muell. (two spp. ), Mus- 
gravea F. Muell., and Placospermum White & 
Francis. A surprising feature is the absence, 
with the exception of one species in New Zea- 
land, of the family from Polynesia. 
There is in the islands of the southwest Paci- 
fic — Caroline Islands, New Guinea, Solomon 
Islands, and the New Hebrides — a group of trees 
with the floral characters of Grevillea R. Br. 
and the fruit of Helicia Lour. These, I consider, 
all belong to Finschia Warb. This genus was 
founded by Warburg (1891: 297) on a tree 
from northeastern New Guinea. His original 
description would cover Grevillea R. Br. exactly 
though he does not mention this genus and on 
the following page the distinctions he gives for 
separating his proposed new genus from Helicia 
are exactly those which distinguish Grevillea 
from that genus. H. Sleumer (1939: 127), in a 
more recent contribution to our knowledge of 
Papuan Proteaceae, includes Finschia Warb. in 
Grevillea R. Br. and gives a key to the New 
Guinean species. Lauterbach (1913: 329), in 
a key to the Papuan genera of Proteaceae, dis- 
tinguishes Finschia Warb. from Grevillea R. Br. 
by the fruit being scarcely dehiscent. Later 
Diels (1916: 205), in an account of new 
Papuan Proteaceae, referred to this and stated 
that Lauterbach’s conclusions were unfounded as 
fruits of neither F. rufa Warb. nor F. chloro- 
xantha Diels, the only two species so far de- 
scribed, were known. An emended description 
of the genus and a key to the species are offered 
here, a new species is described, and a new 
combination proposed. 
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