131 



X umber of Opposite Leaves. — Stress has been laid on the number of pairs of 

 opposite leaves in a seedling, before the alternate-leaved stage is reached. The large 

 number of narrow opposite leaves in E. viminalis and E. racliata, and of broad ones in 

 E. Stuartiana and E. Gunnii, arrest the attention of every intelligent stroller in the 

 bush, while the fact that some species {e.g., E. paniculata and E. corymbosa) change so 

 rapidly to the alternate-leaved stage that one can rarely obtain opposite leaves of them, 

 except after careful and perhaps prolonged search, is known to fewer observers. 



This persistence in oppositeness, or in refusal " to grow up," is instructive. Such 

 species as E. viminalis and E. Stuartiana are physiologically retrograde, while 

 E. paniculata belongs to a group more progressive in the cycle of life. 



Intermediate Leaves (6) and 6a. (Miss Flockton (6a) ). — In some cases there may 

 be some repetition here, but we have the advantage of two sets of facts made by different 

 observers, and they may be looked upon as supplemental or corroborative as a rule. 

 Miss Flockton's observations were invariably made from the seedling in the pot as she 

 drew it, gazing at it again and again. 



Intermediate leaves indicate all leaves from the last pair of opposite leaves to 

 the lanceolate or adult leaf. There is a great range of variation in these leaves, as shown 

 in the figures, and they are directly comparable with the intermediate leaves of the 

 shoot as shown at Part LXYI, p. 307, Plates 270-271. At the same time, it may be 

 proper to point out that the intermediate leaves of the shoot, as thus defined, have a 

 wider range than those of the seedlings as defined above. In other words, in the 

 intermediate leaves of the shoot we adopt the convention of including all shapes and 

 sizes of leaves between the earliest and the latest, while in the seedling it becomes 

 necessary, as a matter of convenience, to restrict the intermediate leaves in the manner 

 stated. But the two kinds of intermediate leaves are strictly correlative. 



Some seedlings show alternate leaves immediately after the cotyledons — some 

 of the Corymbosa?, for example. They seem irregular or anomalous in the present 

 state of our knowledge, but our acquaintance with them is increasing. 



They may be alternate and then opposite, before they finally become alternate. 

 Indeed, there may be two forms of leaves, each strictly opposite in character, before 

 they proceed to the alternate stage. They can also be petiolate and then sessile before 

 they finally become petiolate. 



X.B. — In the Corymbosse and Eudesmiese the intermediate leaves start from the 

 last peltate leaf. 



Where the name of Miss Flockton occurs in brackets, with the detailed 

 descriptions of seedlings, it means that these are the notes made by that artist at the 

 various times each seedling was brought to her for drawing. (In a small percentage 

 of cases the notes were made by the ladies who made drawings under Miss Flockton's 

 supervision.) These notes extend over twenty years, and I prefer to copy them as 

 they stand, rather than attempt to bring them into uniformity in 1923. I think they 

 will be more useful as impressions made at the time, and hope that very many more 

 such notes will be made by future workers. 



