B4 FLORA OP TASMANIA. [Tremandrece. 
botany, which cannot be arbitrarily settled, and in which each person, in deciding for himself, will generally be guided 
by abstract considerations of the permanence of specific characters ami of what constitutes a species. I may premise 
that there are no structural or organic characters in the flowers or fruit wherein to distinguish any of the four spe- 
cies ; such characters as there are reside in habit, size, colour, form of foliage, of sepals, petals, and amount and 
nature of hairiness. Now, as a general rule, differences, to be of a specific nature, should be accompanied by abso- 
lutely distinctive characters, however slight, in the organs of reproduction, and these I do not find in the plants under 
consideration. It must be borne in mind that plants so common as these are very apt to run into stirpes and races, 
which preserve their characters for uncertain periods, independent of changed circumstances ; and that with regard 
to Heath-like plants of the habit of Tetratheca, Epaeris, leptospermum, Leu.copogon, Gaultheria, and others, this 
tendency to vary is extremely great. These circumstances, and the fact that every-day experience in the garden and 
field proves habit to be the most deceitful of all marks (both because of the different estimate each observer puts 
upon it, in individual cases, and because it is impossible to retain accurate impressions of habit under changed 
circumstances), strongly incline me to consider the T. procumbem, pilosa, and Gunnii as all one species. 
It is to be borne in mind that the above remarks are only suggestive. I am far from saying that good and 
permanent characters, though undetected hitherto, will not be found for the above plants ; nor would I go so far as 
to say that habit may not indicate these ; but professing to be guided in the discrimination of species by the theory 
that these are creations of nature, I cannot avoid the conclusion that, as a general law, they must be marked by 
absolute characters of structural importance, and that habit, colour, etc., and such characters as are found to vary 
m all plants to a great degree, and may be modified to an unlimited extent in our gardens, are, as a general rule, 
never available for founding specific characters, though of the greatest value as guides in the search for these. 
Steetz (Plant. Preiss. p. 212, in note) remarks that the number of parts of the flower in Tetratheca is variable, 
as indicated previously by Endlicher (Plant. Hugel. p. 8), but that the structure of the stamens is always remarkably 
constant in each species, these being two- or four-celled. The East Australian and Tasmanian species, he adds, have 
always tetramerous flowers and short terminal tubes to the anthers, whereas the majority of the West Australian 
species have anther-tubes as long as the body of the anther, and pentamerous flowers. Mr. Steetz remarks that the 
hairiness is the most variable of all characters, species and their individual organs being glabrous, hairy, or villous ; 
to which I would add, that in the Tasmanian species they are sometimes glandular also. The anthers are spuriously 
four-celled, but perhaps really only two-celled in them all, from the absorption of the dissepiment. In T. glandulosa 
and T. pilosa the tubular apex of the anthers is often nearly as long as the cells ; in T. ciliata it is shorter, and in 
T. Gunnii and procumbent very short indeed; but I find considerable variation in each species. (Name from rtrpa, 
four, and %a, a box ; from the four-celled anthers.) 
1. Tetratheca ciliata (Lindley in Mitchell's Exped. ii. p. 206) j erecta, virgata, pubescens v. gla- 
brata, foliis ternis late rhombeo-ovatis rotundatisve superioribus cllipticis glaberrimis v. remote glanduloso- 
pilosis marginibus subrecurvis, floribus breve pedicellatis, sepalis ovato-lanceolatis glabris, petalis majusculis, 
antheris elongatis apice tubo brevi terminatis.— Eooh. Ic. Plant, t. 268, Journ. Bot. ii. 408; Schuckard't 
8yn. Tremandr. 32. {Gunn, 648.) 
Hab. Mouth of the Tamar, on sandy heaths, etc., Gunn.— (M. Sept.) 
Distrib. South-eastern Australia. 
A very handsome plant, with much broader and less coriaceous leaves than any of its congeners.— Stems 2-3 
feet high, rather straggling and weak, glabrous or pubescent, with short glandular hairs. Leave* in threes, remote, 
i-f inch long, and often nearly as broad ; margins recurved; upper surface smooth or scabrid, lower glaucous, gla- 
brous. Peduncles slender, as long i 
shorter, glabrous, or with a few scattered 1 
, and very handsome. 
. (Lab. Fl. Nov. Holl. i. 123) ; erecta, ramosa, dense patentim glan- 
duloso-pilosa, foliis sparsis lauceolatis ovato-lanceolatisve grosse dentatis, floribus amplis (f una latis), 
