72 
No. 11. 
Cryptocarya obovata, R.Br. 
A She-Beech. 
(Natural Order LAURACEME.) 
Botanical description. —Genus, Cryptocarya, R.Br. 
Flowers. —Her maph rodite. 
Perianth-segments. —Six, equal, or nearly so. 
Stamens of the outer series 6, all perfect, with introrse anthers, alternating with three short 
staminodia. 
Glands. —Six at the base of the inner perfect stamens, or almost as near to the outer opposed 
to them. 
Anthers. —Two-celled. 
Ovary. —Immersed in the perianth-tube, which, after flowering, closes over the ovary, and finally 
becomes more or less fleshy or succulent, completely enclosing, and usually consolidated with 
the fruit, the limb of the perianth deciduous, leaving a small scar at the apex, or rarely 
persistent. 
Trees or small shrubs. 
Flowers. —Small, in cymes arranged in axillary racemes or panicles, the upper ones often 
forming an apparently terminal panicle with the subtending leaves very small or deficient. 
Fruiting perianths. —Globular ovoid or oblong, having the appearance of inferior fruits. 
(B. FI., v, 295.) 
Botanical description. —Species, C. obovata , R.Br., Prod., 402. 
A fine bushy-headed tree (Dallachy), the young young shoots and inflorescence minutely 
tomentose, and more or less ferruginous. 
Leaves. —Oblong to obovate, very obtuse, and 2 to 4 inches long in the typical form, larger, 
broader, and sometimes shortly and obtusely acuminate in some northern specimens, rather 
thick, the margins often recurved, glabrous with the veins scarcely conspicuous above, often 
glaucous or even very minutely pubescent when young underneath, with the primary pinnate 
veins very prominent, the reticulations scarcely conspicuous. 
Panicles. —Loosely thyrsoid, numerous and many-flowered, the upper ones forming a terminal 
panicle. 
Flowers. —Rather larger than in C. glaucescens. 
Perianth-segments. —As long as the oblong tube. 
Glands. —Stipitate, appearing to belong as much to the outer as to the inner staminal series. 
Staminodia. —Sessile, acuminate. 
Fruitinq perianth. —Globular, about half-inch diameter.—Meissn. in DC. Prod, xv, i, 73, 507. 
(B.F1., v, 296.) 
Mr. E. M. Bailey defines a Queensland form ( e.g ., Rockingham Bay) with 
broader leaves than usual, under the name variety tropica. 
