172 A. n. Hardy: 



pressure may sometimes be seen. Sustained pressure is at times 

 avoided by the sacrifice of one or more members of the umbel. In 

 a quantity of fruit of E. cordata, procured from Tasmania by the 

 Conservator of Forests, Mr. H. Mackay, I found fully 25 per cent, 

 of the umbels — which usually are trimerous in series monoplane 

 or approaching thereto — affected by lateral connation. In these 

 coherent fruits the rims were circular or nearly so. The cohesion 

 was not necessarily due to mutual pressure, but probably con- 

 genital, as in some cases there were only two fruits occupying the 

 aiial place of three. (PI. XIII., ?,.) 



Precocious Fruiting Amongst Resting Buds. — This was observed 

 in two umbels of Eucalyptus eugenioides. It is the habit of many 

 eucalypts to rest from flowering during a season, and to bloom in 

 alternate years. In some species the bud-to-seed period is a few 

 months — in others one, two, or (rarely) perhaps three years. E. 

 rostrata is prone to biennial fruiting; in some species a season of 

 vigorous reproduction is sometimes followed by two years' rest. 

 This phenomenon (the "on" and the "off" year) is watched 

 carefully by apiarists as of ecomonic importance in their anticipa- 

 tion of, and arrangements for, "honey-flow." Other eucalypts, 

 as the winter-flowering E. leuco.ri/lou, E. sidero.rj/lon, etc., bloom 

 yearly; and others, climatically affected, are irregular, but in most 

 cases the fruit does not mature until the second year. So that, 

 as a rule, a fruitful eucalypt bears either young fruit which will 

 ripen next year, or old fruit of last year's flowering, or may have 

 the old fruits present during the early development of young fruits 

 of the present season. The habit of E. eugenioides is not known 

 to me, but of four twigs collected between Bruthen and Orbost one 

 bore two umbels of abnormal development. Of these one comprised 

 seven young flowers and one old fruit, while the other consisted 

 of six buds, one newly expanded flower, and two fully matured 

 fruits. In view of the resting condition of the contemporary buds 

 at the time when these fruits began to develop in the previous year, 

 this may be regarded as a case of precocity. (PI. XIII., 2.) Seen 

 also in ^. ohliqua. 



Delayed Dehiscence. — Species of both CalUstemon^ and Melaleuca 

 retain their ripened seeds for years. The specimen of C. lanceolatus 

 (exhibited) accounts for six years' fruit, and seeds from the first 

 four of the series germinated when the capsules were opened by 

 artificial heating. 



1 Cf. Ewart, Annuls of potany, vol, xxi., 1907, 135, 



