MUTATIOxN IN A PROTEACEOliS TPiEE. 



By H. a. Longman and C. T. White. 



(With Text-Figure 22.) 



( Read before the Royal Society of Queensland, 

 30th SeiHember, 1918). 



A number of specimens of the handsome Proteaceous 

 tree, Buckinghamia celsissima F. v. M., have been intro- 

 duced from North Queensland and are thriving in Brisbane 

 gardens. Jn the normal flower there is at the base of the 

 style "a single semiannular truncate and crenulate 

 gland."* ( Glandula hypogyna solitaria, fere semiannulata)"t" 

 Certain trees, however, present a striking divergence from 

 the typical form. Several hundreds of flowers obtained from 

 a tree at Wooloowin during February and March, 1918, 

 were closely observed by us. In practically every flower 

 the hypogynous gland is divided into four or five seg- 

 ments (usually five), and two of these are much elongated 

 into supplementary style-like processes. These are about 

 two thirds the length of the true style and terminate in 

 small ciavate discs which simulate stigmas, even as to 

 colour. These supplementary style-like processe<s are very 

 noticeable in the showy racemes. The length varies with 

 development. In the earlier stages these processes are 

 partly curved upon themselves inside the perianth tube 

 and at no time do they reach the revolute limb which 

 encloses the stamens. As the flower matures they are set 



♦Bentham, Flora Australiensis, v., p. 532. 



fF. V. Mueller, Fragm., Phytogr., vi, 247; italics Mueller's, 



