[Proc. Eoy. Soc. Victoria, 29 (N.S.), Part II., 1917J. 



Art. XYl.—Teratologicat Notes: Part 2. 



By a. D. hardy, F.L.S. 



(State Forests Department, Melbourne). 



(With Plates XI., XII., XIII). 



[Read 14th December, 1916]. 



The first part of this series was devoted to seedlings. The present 

 contribution is intended to record some instances of aberration of 

 stem, branch, and fruit. For part 3 is reserved a number of cases 

 of foliar abnormality. 



Root. 



One abnormal root arrangement was near Heidelberg, on the 

 Yarra, where erosion of the river bank caused an exposure of the 

 roots of two small red-gum trees {Eucalyptus rostrafa). The trees, 

 nearly equal in size, stood 8 feet apart, and were connected by a 

 simple cable root. The cable was dead and much w^aterworn, its 

 thickness varying irregularly between 2 and 3 inches. Seen from 

 a canoe in a swift current by Mr. R. A. Keble and myself, it was 

 not conveniently situated for photography or for further investiga- 

 tion than to note that there was no suture indicative of fusion. 

 It is possible that one of the two trees was originally a sucker of the 

 other, but of faster subsequent development, and that the continua- 

 tion of the supporting root had disappeared without leaving super- 

 ficial evidence of its having existed. The specimen was carried 

 away during further erosion, but there is another — though not so 

 good — at a bend of the river just above Heidelberg. 



Stem. 



Malposition. — Peculiarities in form and posture of the stem may 

 be seen where, on the northern edge of the plains to the north and 

 north-west of Melbourne, the eucalypts (E. rostrafa) have yielded 

 to the pressure of the prevailing winds of their youth. The south- 

 ward leaning of about 60 per cent, of these large trees can be seen 

 from the Whittlesea railway. They are bent from the vertical, near 

 the base, through angles varying up to 65 degrees, and at time** 

 are so much curved and arched that the large branches have frac- 

 tured in contact with the ground, and occasionally from this semi- 

 recumbent position send up shoots, or adjust existing shoots, the 



