Teratoloijical Notes. 169 



Heterotrojjy (reversed direction of growth of a branch and 

 branchlets of a hybrid eucalypt. Plate XII.). 



On the way from Stawell to the Grampians, and near Brigg's 

 •Creek, on Rose's Gap road, there is, in a paddock lately occupied 

 by Mr. Wills as a bee farm and range, a tree which seemed to be a 

 hybrid {EucalyiJtus hemiphloia x E. melliodora), with foliage, 

 fruit and bark satisfying the requirements of the former, and with 

 buds distinctly nearer the latter species. Both species grew in the 

 district, but with no E. melliodora lately in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood. E. melliodora (Yellow Box) sometimes — frequently in 

 the Silurian country near Alexandra, etc. — assumes a drooping 

 habit like Salix hahylonica, or the Weeping Elm; many trees may be 

 found aggregated in a locality or scattered amongst those of more 

 or less erect habit, but E. hemiphloia avoids this weeping habit 

 entirely, so far as my experience goes. In the particular tree under 

 notice, there is a fork in the stem at only a few feet from the 

 ground, and at a height at about 30 feet an offshoot from the main 

 limb bears a branch which terminates abruptly, but sends back at 

 . an angle of 40 degrees or so a smaller branch, which, by reason of 

 its slenderness and the weight of foliage subsequently produced 

 below, hangs vertically. After 10 feet of groAvth earthwards, during 

 which there were several abortive attempts to retain downward-grow- 

 ing twigs, one lateral branch at an acute angle grew downwards until 

 at about 6 feet it sent a branchlet upwards at an acute angle, and 

 this persisted, and bore good foliage, and the downward growth 

 ceased and Avithered back to an abrupt end, where the dead portion 

 snapped off. Meanwhile the leader pursued its downward course, 

 the stumps of dead and missing twigs indicating the production of 

 several downward branches — leaving a space of about 16 feet of 

 denuded axis below, while three branches have persisted, and from 

 these latter I collected the bloom, buds and fruit by which I recog- 

 nized the probability of the parentage being as above mentioned. 

 At the abrupt, broken, and dead termination of this 30-feet-long 

 pendent leader a final branch, directed upwards at an acute angle, 

 bore abundant foliage. The whole, swinging from 30 feet above, 

 swayed and gently gyrated in the light breeze, but during a gale 

 must be badly used at times. The drooping habit of one branch 

 iind some offshoots reminded me of w^eeping forms of E. melliodora^ 

 and if the tree is, as I believe, a hybrid, it may be that the ten- 

 dencies to an erect — and also to a drooping — habit were present at 

 the same time during growth, with the heterotropic result shown in 



