445 



long or short as compared to these dimensions that I have referred to it. These peduncles with their 

 umbels are, however, in their general arrangement, of some importance, constituting three types : — 

 (1) Axillary or lateral, that is, solitary in the axils of the leaves or along the branchlets above or below 

 the leaves; (2) several together in short simple panicles at the end of the branehlet or in the axils of the 

 leaves; and (3) in a compound terminal corymbose panicle. But these forms appear to pass into, each other 

 very much in imperfect specimens. In the first and simplest form the floral leaves of the uppermost umbels 

 or of very short axillary flowering branches are sometimes quite abortive, converting the inflorescence 

 into the second form ; in this again the lower axillary panicles may be occasionally reduced to single umbels 

 as in the first, and even in the terminal corymb, characteristic of the Corymbosa?, a single specimen may here 

 and there show an axillary umbel, or after flowering, the branches of the corymb may occasionally, though 

 rarely, grow out into leafy shoots, leaving the fruiting umbels lateral below the new leaves, (iii, 187.) 



It is only when one comes to Series V (Normales) (B. FL, iii, 193), that the 

 position of the flowers is given some classificatory value by Bentham (but subject to the 

 generalisations already stated) : — 



Subseries I. — Subsessiles : Flowers axillary or lateral. 



Subseries II. — Recurvce : Flowers axillary or lateral. 



Subseries III. — Robusto? : Peduncles axillary or lateral (peduncles being substituted for flowers), 

 or very rarely the upper ones in a terminal corymb, usually flattened. Sessile or tapering into thick 

 pedicels. 



Subseries IV. — Cornuke : Peduncles axillary or lateral, flattened (except in E. cornuta). Sessile 

 or shortly pedicellate. 



Subseries V. — Exserta? : Peduncles axillary or lateral, or rarely also the upper ones in a short terminal 

 corymb, terete or scarcely flattened .... usually pedunculate. 



Subseries VI. — SubexserUe : Peduncles axillary or lateral, or also the upper ones more or less 

 paniculate, terete or flattened. 



Subseries VII. — Inclusw : ■ Umbels usually several-flowered, axillary or lateral . ... in 

 lateral clusters or very short panicles .... the peduncles terete or scarcely flattened. 



Subseries VIII. — Corymbosa? : The umbels, or very rarely heads, all in a terminal corymbose panicle, 

 or rarely a few of the lower ones axillary. 



Mueller, 1879. — Mueller does not appear to have written in the " Eucalypto- 

 graphia '' to a model, and hence the peduncle was variously called by him umbel-stalk, 

 common stalk, flower-stalk, or merely stalk, while he was usually consistent in calling 

 the pedicel " stalklet." Occasionally he called it the " ultimate." Referring to the 

 Renantherse, he speaks of " umbels generally solitary." 



Naudin, 1883, 1S91. — In Naudin's classification, mainly based on the fruit, it 

 will be observed that he calls in the aid of Inflorescence, including the length, or absence 

 of peduncles and pedicels. No writer on the Inflorescence of Eucalyptus is more 

 voluminous and lucid than Naudin, but the generalisations of Bentham are still true, 

 and it is still necessary to be very cautious in regard to classification based upon such 

 variables as peduncles and pedicels. Professor Ralph Tate points out that the usual 

 form of inflorescence is an umbel which, by lengthening of the axis, passes to the panicle 

 or corymb. The transition from one to the other is so easy, he goes on to remark, and 

 often exemplified in the same tree, that it is obvious the form of the inflorescence is not 

 reliable as a specific character. 



