EUCALYPTUS SEPULCRALIS. 



place in the series of ParallelantherEe rather than Eenantherse, though it hears great affinity to 

 E. buprestium, from which species it differs in the following particulars : — The leafstalks are 

 longer, the veins of the leaves fainter, the flowers larger hut fewer in number, the flowerstalks 

 elongated and flattened, the stalklets much longer, the anthers somewhat longer than broad with 

 more extended but less divergent slits, the fruits almost suddenly contracted below the summit 

 and thus rather urceolar than globular, their oriflce stretching much deeper downward, by which 

 means the valves are much farther removed from the summit of the fruit. Size and shape of 

 fruit afford an approach to E. setosa ; their position, long stalklets and streaky exterior remind 

 of E. cassia ; the anthers resemble those of E. santalifolia, with which it also accords in the near 

 conformity of fertile and sterile seeds. 



The importance of the form and structure of the anthers for diagnostic purposes was first 

 recognized in the fragm. phytogr. Austral, ii. 32-70, and these characteristics have been well 

 employed by Bentham for the primary systematic grouping of the Eucalypts. But for methods of 

 arrangement also a carpologic system could readily be elaborated, with this advantage, that any 

 species might thus be defined from fruiting specimens alone, which latter through the long 

 persistence of the fruit are always obtainable in collecting-journeys, whereas fiowering specimens 

 can be got only at some period of the year, subject even to fluctuations and uncertainties. 

 E. sepulcralis furnishes a good instance of the advantage of a system based primarily on fruit- 

 characters. That species in a carpologic arrangement would thus be placed with those which have 

 large and somewhat urceolar fruits with enclosed valves, namely : E. miniata, E. perfoliata, E. 

 calophylla, E. ficifolia, E. ptychocarpa, E. Abergiana, E. Watsoniana, E. sestoa, and E. corymbosa. 



Explanation or Analytic Details. — 1, uuexpanded flower, the lid lifted; 2, longitudinal section of an 

 unexpanded flower ; 3, some stamens in expanded position ; 4 and 5, front- and back-view of an anther with part of 

 its fllament ; 6, style and stigma ; 7 and 8, transverse and longitudinal section of a fruit ; 9 and 10, sterile and fertile 

 seeds ; 11, portion of a leaf ; 12, young seedlings with cotyledonar leaves ;— 1-11, magnified, but to various extent ; 

 12, natural size. 



