11 
No. 114. 
Cryptocarya australis, Benth. 
Grey Sassafras. 
(Family EAURACE^E.) 
Botanical description. -Genus, Cryptocarya. (See Part III, p. 72.) 
Botanical description.—Species, C. australis, Benth., in Flora Australiensis, v, 
299 (1870). 
A large shrub or small tree, quite glabrous in all its parts. 
Leaves ovate elliptical or almost oblong, acuminate, contracted into a short petiole, coriaceous or 
thin, pale underneath hut not at all white, prominently triplinerved, 2 to 4 inches long. 
Panicles very loose, few-flowered, always much shorter than the leaves, and quite glabrous. 
Pedicels rather long. 
Perianth-tube turbinate, nearly 1 line long, the lobes at least as long, ovate and more spreading 
than in other species. 
Stamens short, especially the 3 inner ones. 
Ovary immersed in the tube. 
Fruiting perianth obovoid, pear-shaped, nearly | inch long, usually crowned by the remains of 
the perianth-limb. 
Botilllical Name. — Cryjptocarya, already explained (sec Part III, p. 73) ; 
australis, Latin, southern (Australian, in a limited sense). 
Vernacular Names. —“Grey Sassafras” is one of the names by which this 
tree is known, and I do not think of a better. It has been called “ Laurel ” or 
“ Moreton Bay Laurel.” 
Synonyms. —This is a plant of several synonyms, partly arising through a 
confusion of its habitat. 
(1.) Laurus Boivici, Hook. 
“ .... it was through a mistake in our Journal of Botany , vol. iv, 418 (as explained in the 
erratum, same vol., p. 436), that another species (Laurus Bonnei *) is described as inhabiting that region 
(Hooker had believed that the plant had come from the Cape.—J.H.M.), that species proving, on furthe 
investigation, to he a native of Moreton Bay, in Australia.” 
I have not been able to trace the reference to the Journal of Botany in the 
above quotation. 
(2.) Laurus australis, A. Cunn. Sec the footnote ([noted under (1). 
• “ L. australis, All. Cunn., which name it ought to retaiu” (W. J. Hooker, Hot. May. under t. .'1931). 
