Rutacece .] 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
137 
oblong or spathulate, opposite, 1-3 lines long, tomentose, very caducous. CaKx semiovate- or hemispherical- 
- cupshaped, 1J-3 lines rarely 4 lines long, truncate, persistent, usually outward brown- sometimes grey- 
tomentose, rarely glabrous, seldom as long as broad, with 4 minute teeth, which if present alternate with the 
petals, rarely 8-toothed. Petals usually 2 lines broad and 1-1 \ inch long, narrow-lanceolate, in a variety 
inhabiting the desert and in another variety occurring in coast-tracts reduced to the length of § inch, in the 
variety designated C. cardinalis fully 2 inches long, connate into a cylindrical tube, divergent at the apex, 
when reduced in length exhibiting an almost bell-shaped form, inside below the apex and at the very base 
whitish; their terminal portion on both pages green or tinged somewhat with red or brown, or rarely yellowish 
white, or quite white, outside all over pulvenilent-tomentose with veiy short starry downs, never smooth, 
inside quite glabrous, finally deciduous, more or less secedent in age. Filaments white or slightly tinged 
with green or red, smooth, deciduous; those opposite the petals either suddenly or gradually but always con¬ 
spicuously dilated just above the base; their dilatation about 1 line rarely only J line broad, outward concave, 
inward convex, always tapering to the bottom, retaining a nectarfiuid; the four filaments alternating with 
the petals all around equally but only comparatively little thickened towards the base, also pointed at the 
bottom. Anthers 1-1§ line long, yellow, finally dark red-brown at the back, ellipsoid, with truncate base 
and apex and introrse dehiscence. Pollen-grains yellow, smooth, at first spherical, when shedding ellipsoid, 
bursting with three longitudinal fissures. Style about as long as the filaments or somewhat longer, thin- 
filiform, long-persistent, very gently attenuated towards the summit; its upper portion pale-green, and always 
smooth ,* its lower portion white and much less frequently glabrous than clothed with tender white radiate 
dow’ns, which are scantily or densely distributed. Stigmas so minute as not or little to exceed the thickness 
of the style, rarely short-divergent. Hypogynous disk only about h line high, greenish-yellow, consisting of 
4 smooth almost renate confluent glands, which in being* outward bent foim b longitudinal ridges. Carpels 
usually half or niore than half emerging beyond the calyx, rarely in diminutive desert-grown specimens 
nearly concealed in the calyx, in their ordinary state 3—4 lines long, in diminutive specimens shorter. Their 
valves of rather firm thin-coriaceous consistence, livid or brownish, with curved transverse anastomosing lines, 
rounded or truncate or even dilated at the apex, 1- or more frequently 2-seeded, entirely smooth or usually 
in part laxly tomentose. Valves of the endocarp parchment-like, livid, sometimes only lightly excised with 
toothless cup-like base. Placental membrane about 1 line long. Seeds brown-black or dark-brown, some¬ 
times variegated, smooth, 1-2 lines long, by mutual pressure truncate on one extremity when geminate, 
otherwise oblique-ovate. Radicle thicker than the cotyledons. 
In flower throughout the year. 
Colonists have not appropriately given the name “ Native Fuchsia’’ to this plant. The flowers, although 
usually pendent, are also, perhaps according to the action of light, patent or even erect, as well expressed in 
the Bot. Mag. t. 1746, and in the Bot. Reg*, t, 26, such difference in the direction of the flowers being ascer¬ 
tained to exist also in C. Lawrenciana. C. magnifica appears to be rather a variety of C. speciosa than a 
hybrid production; its leaves are small, almost flat and of so thick a texture as to conceal the lateral nerves 
and tne veins, which render the foliage of the ordinary state of C. speciosa almost wrinkled. What is culti¬ 
vated in gardens under the name of C. rosea and C. Grevillei is clearly conspecific with C. speciosa. Nor 
are any characters apparent by which C. longiflora (Paxt. Mag. vii. 195), C. Harrisii (Paxt. Mag*, vii. 79) and 
C. bicolor (Paxt. Mag. ix. 267), could be withdrawn from the other numerous varieties of C. speciosa, a plant 
which in the wide rang’e of its distribution encounters such varied influences by climate and soil as to render 
its playforms readily enough understood when studied in free nature. The above garden-plants can be 
regarded only as the result of cross-impregnation not of species but of varieties, and forms analogous to them 
may be met with in the fields of Australia. C. decumbens (F. M. in Transact. Phil. Soc. Yict. i. 30) is 
nearly related to C. speciosa. It occurs on the cataracts of the Mount Lofty Ranges and on the Onkaparinga 
in South Australia, also according to Mr. F. Waterhouse’s collections in Kangaroo Island. From the red- 
flowering* variety of C. speciosa it differs in having* a distinctly 8-toothed calyx, the teeth opposite the petals 
