37 



In E. Bakeri the stamens may be persistent on the ring even as long as the 

 valves are extruded, so that we may have ripe fruit and stamens together. 



So far as I can see, botanists rarely refer to this deciduous rim, and then only in 

 connection with the fruit, as its presence can be easiest seen in that stage. 



Mueller refers to " Rim of the young fruit encircled inside by a flat annular 

 membrane " {i.e., staminal ring), (E. siderophloia, " Eucalyptographia," which I suggest 

 may be a slip of the pen for E. sideroxylon). 



There is some correlation, but not a marked one, between species with marked 

 annular rings, and the Terminales, e.g., E. sideroxylon, E. leucoxylon, E. Caleyi, 

 E. Dawsoui. 



(b) Discontinuous. 

 Bundling or Tuftiness of the Stamens (Eudesmiese). 



Robert Brown (" Appendix to Flinders' Voyage," II, 599, t. 3) proposed to 

 establish the genus Eudesmia, as separate from Eucalyptus, partly by reason of the 

 arrangement of the stamens indicated above. Under E. erythrocorys, Part XLV, p. 

 135. with figures, I have, I think, sufficiently explained the arrangement. 



Bentham makes reference to what I have called the Bundling or Tuftiness of 

 the stamens in the case of the following three species. He calls the group which includes 

 them the Eudesmieae. 



Stamens . . . forming 4 bundles alternating with the calyx-teeth, the claw or entire part very 

 short and broad, or four clusters, if the claw be considered as a mere dilatation or lobe of the margin of 

 the staminal disk. (E. erythrocorys.) 



Stamens . . . more or less distinctly arranged in four clusters or bundles, alternating with 

 the calyx-tube, but the claws or dilatations of the disk very short or scarcely perceptible .... 

 (E. tetragona.) 



Stamens . . . distinctly arranged in four clusters or bundles alternating with the calyx- 

 teeth . . . (E. eudesmioides.) 



Mueller remarks — 



E. tetragona shares with E. erythrocorys the remarkable characteristic of having its stamens united 

 into bundles, which alternate with the teeth of the calyx, though the filaments do not actually unite, but 

 are inserted on semiorhicular lobes, different in colour and consistence. On this distinction rests R. Brown's 

 genus Eudesmia, which to some extent holds the same position towards Eucalyptus as Melaleuca towards 

 Callistemon, and as Ttislaaia towards Metrosideros ; the coalescence of the filaments of Melaleuca is one 

 of degree only, and even in the typical M. Leucadendron affects merely the very base of the staminal bundles. 

 But as in all three hitherto known Eudesmias, hardly any concrescence of the filaments themselves is 

 traceable, I deemed it best to include them in the genus Eucalyptus, especially as calyx-teeth are still 

 more strongly developed in E. odontocarpa and E. letrodonta. (" Eucalyptographia," under E. tetragona.) 



In the Eudesmiae (except E. tetrodonta) the four depressions are where the stamens 

 are, or have been inserted. 



