Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Iviii. (1914), No. 14. 3 



the growth of the plant, which took place by the shortening 

 of its main stem, may have had some influence in the 

 production of the flowers. This is however by no means 

 always the case, though it has occurred in one other 

 specimen which had been similarly treated. 



The production of flowers on such immature plants is 

 of some biological interest, and Cockayne has recently 

 drawn attention to the occurrence of numerous cases of 

 such precocity observed in New Zealand, while Diels^ 

 in 1906 gave us a fuller account of the same phenomenon. 



In this latter account he deals with several interesting 

 occurrences in the genus Eucalyptus, which he interprets 

 as cases of juvenile flowering, or more properly of the 

 retention of the juvenile foliage in mature plants. 



According to Diels, Eucalyptus pulverulenta and Euca- 

 lyptus melanophloia seem to be juvenile flowering forms of 

 Eucalyptus Stuartiana and E. crebra, just as von M tiller^ 

 had considered that Eucalyptus Risdoni from Tasmania 

 was only a form of Eucalyptu-s aniygdaliua, which had 

 retained the immature foliage in the cooler climate of 

 Tasmania. 



I understand, however, from Mr. L. Rod way, of 

 Tasmania, that neither Miiller's nor Diel's suggestions 

 regarding the relationship of these species of Eucalyptus 

 are accepted by Australian and Tasmanian botanists 

 familiar with these plants in the field. 



Mr. Rodway tells me that the reason why in many 

 instances Eucalyptus Risdoni retains its juvenile foliage 

 is that it often grows on the poorest and dryest mudstone. 

 Wherever Eucalyptus Risdoni establishes itself on land 

 not quite so poor it develops into the form referred by 



^ Diels, L. " Jugendformen und Blutenreife im Pflanzenreich." 

 I'erlin, 1906. 



^ Von iMuller, F. " Eucalyptographia," V. 1880. 



