386 



MEL'S LAW. 



(Sec Part LVJ, p. 30.3.) 



" With regard to ' Diels's Law ' (p. 305, Part LVI), Definition of Diels's Law — I have seen very 

 striking examples of this in the typical E. cinerea in this district, perfectly juvenile form of foliage, 

 as well as perfectly developed mature forms are usually found on one and the same tree — on young to 

 very aged trees, sometimes both forms on one branch, and on both forms perfectly developed buds, flowers 

 and fruits, which mature and ripen. I think the same may be said of E. neglecta. 



" Regarding adventitious shoots, I once observed a remarkable thing on a Red Gum tree at Boisdale 

 (near Maffra). A medium-sized E. tereticornis, in the full vigour of growth, and from a medium-sized 

 branch, there came forth a sturdy stem, 2 or 3 inches in diameter, and about 3 or 4 feet long, which carried 

 a rather dense head of large, quite ovate-shaped leaves, on short stiff petioles. These stiff green leaves 

 were quite glabrous, and of the usual dark green colour of E. tereticornis, about 3 to 4 inches long and 2 to 

 2i inches broad (so far as I could judge), but it was too high up for me to obtain a specimen. They stood 

 out very conspicuously from the rest of the foliage, which was quite normal. It looked just like the branch 

 of an entirely different species grafted into the tree. So far as I could see, this strange branch had neither 

 buds nor fruits. The leaves bore no resemblance to the juvenile or sucker leaves usually associated with 

 E. tereticornis." (Harry Hopkins, Bairnsdale, Victoria.) 



E. aggregata, E. Dalrympleana, E. rubida, E. stellulata.— Examples from all 

 these species were found at Marrangaroo, New South Wales, October, 1921, by Dr. 

 E. C. Chisholm and W. F. Blakely. 



I have seen specimens of E. albens from the Dubbo district, New South Wales 

 (December, 1922), affording excellent illustrations of Diels's Law. 



E. dives.— The coloured plate (LXXV) in Baker and Smith's " Research, &c," 

 2nd edn., shows a young twig in flower, and may be a precocious seedling, or, more 

 probably, an illustration of Diels's Law. 



E. elceoflwra.—" A twig showing proliferation associated heterotaxis," fig. 1, 

 Plate XIII, Proc. Roy. Soc., Vict., xxix (new series), A. D. Hardy, may be cited as an 

 illustration of Diels's Law. 



E. macrorrhyncha. See also " Flowers and fruit on a 4-feet high stool-shoot. 

 The fruit is nearly sessile on the preceding year's wood." Mount Evelyn, near Lilydale, 

 Victoria, 1st January, 1922. (A. D. Hardy.) 



E. umigera Hook f. — " One specimen from Alma Tier, Tasmania, has the flowers 

 upon a shoot while still in juvenile foliage." (L. Rodway.) 



