50 FERTILISATION OF EUPOMATIA LAURINA, R.Br. 



The plant is a small tree growing plentifully near water-courses 



in Illawarra. The branches are long, thin and curved; the leaves 



light (not dark, as described by Brown) green with a varnished 



surface, oblong lanceolate in shape and recurving at the margins 



for a short distance above the petiole (figs 11 and 12); sometimes 



in leaves on young shoots from a felled tree, the fold forms a 



tooth (fig. 13). They resemble folds described as Domatia by Dr. 



Lundstrom in the oak and other plants, but I have not observed 



Acarids in them. "Sepals and petals completely consolidated into 



one mass, the upper part falling ofif in a conical lid, leaving the 



lower campanulate tube (or enlarged peduncle), filled with the 



thick flat-topped torus" (Bentham, F\. Aust. i. p. 54). The stamens 



are of two kinds: — (1) The inner barren staminodia, broad, flat, 



and waxy, and described as greenish-yellow, but I have never 



seen them any other than ivoiy-colour. On the margins, in one 



or two instances, I have observed microscopic stellate hairs 



similar to those figured in the Botanical Magazine on E. Benneth, 



but much smaller. These staminodes are in sevei'al rows, the 



inner rows leaning over the centre of the flower and entirely 



cutting off all access to it, the outer rows standing up all round 



(fig. 3, s). Outside of these is — (2) A row of fertile stamens, 



which in the bud are closely pressed together over the staminodia 



(fig. 2); but when the flower opens they gradually reflex till they 



i-each a pendent position (fig. 3, a). The base of the filament is 



wide, thin, and concave, and when the open flower is touched, 



they move in a manner suggestive of irritability, as Brown pointed 



out, but I am certain that they are not sensitive in this way. The 



pollen grains are usually like a double-concave lens, but take 



other irregular shapes also (figs. 5 and 6). The carpels are many, 



and are inserted in the fleshy torus (fig. 8). The stigmas are 



sessile on the disc. When the flower opens, the whole of the disc and 



stismas are moist, and I have not been able to make out whether 



they are then ready for pollination or not, but from the short 



time that the flower lasts, I imagine that they are in a fit state 



when it opens. The fruit is several-celled, formed of the enlarged 



calyx-tube, usually broadly turbinate, and about | of an inch in 



