No. 115. 
Banksia serrata, L. f. 
The Red Honeysuckle. 
(Family PROTEACE/E.) 
Botanical description. —Genus, Banksia. (See Part VIII, p. 169.) 
Botanical description. —Species, B. serrata, L. f. Suppl. 126. 
A tree, the young shoots tomentose or villous, and sometimes densely so, with richly-coloured 
ferruginous very deciduous hairs. 
Leaves , oblong-lanceolate, acute or truncate, regularly and deeply serrate, tapering into a petiole, 
3 to 6 in. long, \ to 1 in. wide, coriaceous, Hat, hoary or rarely white underneath, with parallel 
transverse veins. 
Spikes oblong-cylindrical, or rarely globular, 3 to 6 in. long, very thick. 
Perianth shortly silky, the tube above 1 in. long, the laminpe narrow, acuminate, nearly 3 lines 
long, the silky hairs longer than those of the tube. 
Style at length straight, with a cylindrical somewhat furrowed stigmatic end, about \ line long, 
and thickened at the base. 
Capsides very prominent, tomentose, thick and hard, obliquely rounded or ovate, above 1 in. 
broad. R.Br. in Trans. Linn. Soc. x, 209, Prod. 395 ; Sm. in White, Voy. 223, t. 18 to 
20 j Meissn. in DC. Prod, xiv, 461 ; F. Mueller, Fraym. vii, 56 ; Andr. Bot. Rep. t. 82. 
(B.F1. v, 556.) 
Mr. R. T. Baker ( Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 1896, p. 462), has described a 
variety hirsuta in the following words:— 
Only one clump of this species seen, and that on one of the ranges at Kelgoola. The leaves are 
larger than those of Sydney specimens, and covered on both sides with long white hairs, which are also 
found on the branches. This species has never been recorded so far west before. 
Botanical Name. — Banksia, already explained (see Part VIII, p. 170) ; 
serrata, from a Latin adjective meaning saw-like, in allusion to the notches on the 
margin of the leaves. 
Vernacular Names. —“ Honeysuckle ” is so called because the spikes of 
flowers are often full of honev, which the aborigines used to consume either by 
passing them over their tongues, or by soaking in water, when a sweetish liquid 
would be obtained, which was drunk either before or after fermentation. The prefix 
“red ” is in allusion to the intensely red colour of the wood, and to distinguish it 
from the White Honeysuckle (B. integrifolia). 
The wood when freshly cut has much the appearance of beef, hence the name 
“ Beefwood ” which is occasionally given to it. 
