88 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. II, No. a 
In its fundamental morphological characters, Eremocitrus probably 
represents fairly accurately the ancestral type from which were derived 
the Australian species of Citrus. 
This ancestral type has been, how¬ 
ever, profoundly modified by the 
superposition of many anatomical 
and physiological characters ac¬ 
quired as a result of a long-continued 
struggle for life in a desert climate. 
Only one species of Eremocitrus is 
known: 
Eremocitrus glauca (Lindl.), n. comb. 
Triphasic glauca Lindl., ex T. L. Mitch., 2848. 
Jour, Exped. Trop. Austral, p. 353. London. 
Atalantia glauca Benth., 1863, FI. Austral., v. 1, p. 
370. London. 
Ilhis., W. S. Campbell, 1899, in Agr. Gaz., N. S. 
Wales, v. 10, p. 2168, fig. s, sub. nomen Citrus 
australis (sterile twigs); Fairchild, 1912, in U. S. 
Dept. Agr. Yearbook, 1911, pi. 45, fig. 1 (fruits 
only). 
This species, the desert kumquat, 
desert lemon, or desert lime of the 
Australian pioneers, is a shrub or 
small tree sometimes attaining a 
height of 15 feet and a diameter of 
6 inches (Maiden, 1889, p. 379). l 
When young, the branches are very 
spiny and the leaves are very nar¬ 
row. As the tree gets older, the 
leaves become broader and more 
abundant and the spines are much 
reduced or entirely wanting (Camp¬ 
bell, 1899, p. 1168, fig. 5). 
The leaves of mature plants are 
oblong linear or elongate cuneate, 
bluntly rounded, retuse or emargi- 
nate at the tip, with undulate entire 
margins, 25 to 45 by 4 to 10 mm., 
mostly 30 to 40 by 6 to 8 mm. 
They show on both surfaces minute 
(about 'ys mm. long), scattered, 
appressed few-celled hairs, with a 
warty cuticle. The leaves are para- 
heliotropic (standing more or less 
on edge), very thick, prominently glandular dotted, and taper gradu¬ 
ally into very short wingless petioles. 
Fig. 3. — Eremocitrus glauca: Seedling plants grown 
from seed from near C hin c hi lla, Queensland, Aus¬ 
tralia (S. P. I. No. 29660). A, young seedling 
with hypogeous cotyledons still inclosed in the 
seed coats, natural size; B , an older seedling with 
a very long taproot, natural size; C, a cataphyll. 
X5. Drawn by Theodor Holm. 
1 Bibliographic citations in parentheses refer to ” Literature cited,” pp. 99-100. 
