15 
No. 3. 
Syncarpia laurifolia, Ten. 
The Turpentine-tree. 
(Natural Order MYRTACE^E.) 
Botanical description.—Genus, Syncarpia, Ten.* 
Calyx-lube. —Turbinate or campanulate, adnate to the ovary at the base, the free part erect or 
dilated ; lobes four or rarely five, persistent. 
Petals. —Four or rarely five, spreading. 
Stamens. —Indefinite, free, in one or two series, sometimes interrupted between the petals, 
filaments filiform ; anthers versatile, cells parallel, opening longitudinally. 
Ovary. —Inferior, flat-topped or convex, scarcely depressed round the style, two or three celled, 
with one or several ovules in each cells ; erect on a basal placenta. 
Style. — Filiform, with a small stigma. 
Capsule. —Included in and adnate to the calyx-tube, opening loculicidally in two or three valves. 
Seeds. —Linear-cuneate, testa thin, embryo straight, cotyledons plano-convex, longer than the 
radicle. 
Leaves. —Opposite, penniveined. 
Flowers. —In dense globular heads, either solitary on axillary peduncles or forming terminal 
panicles. (B.H., iii, 265.) 
Botanical description. —Species, S. laurifolia, Ten. in Mem. Soc. Ital. Sc. 
Modena, xxii, t. 1. 
A large tree, the young shoots and underside of the leaves more or less hoary pubescent or 
glaucous. 
Leaves. —Appearing sometimes in whorls of four, from two pairs being close together, from 
broadly ovate, to elliptical-oblong, obtuse or obtusely acuminate, glabrous above, 2 to 3 inches 
long, on petioles of | to | inch. 
Flowers. —White, united, six to ten together in globular heads, on peduncles of f to 1 inch at the 
base of the new shoots, with two to four bracts close under the head, either short and scale¬ 
like or leaf-like, and exceeding the flowers. 
Calyces .—Connate at the base, the free parts broadly campanulate, softly hoary-pubescent, 1 to 
1J- lines long, lobes short, broad and obtuse. 
Petals. —Broadly ovate or orbicular, about 1 1 lines long. 
Stamens. —Three to four lines long, in about two rows round a flat disc fully 3 lines in 
diameter. 
Ovary. —Flat-topped, tomentose, three-celled, with rather numerous ovules in each cell, erect on 
an oblong placenta. 
j Fruiting heads. —about I inch in diameter, the calyces connate to about the middle. (B. FI., iii. 
265.) 
Bentham recognises a variety, ylabra, “ Quite glabrous, even the calyx. Flowers rather small. 
Hastings River.” 
* See Tenore “ Sopra i clue nuovi genera Syncarpia e Donzellia,” Modena, 1840 (4to), a work I have not been able 
to consult. 
