IS EUCALYPTUS VARIABLE 1 329 



(c) Cymes or umbels, axillary, more than 7-flowered. 

 Leaves uniform. 

 Leaves of two shapes. 

 Section II. Flowers in terminal panicles or corymbs. 



Floivers — With reference to individual flowers there is 

 much variation in the number of flowers in an umbel, and 

 to a less extent in the colour of their filaments. The 

 colour in the vast majority of species is white or cream, 

 but in a few species e.g., leucoxylon, sicleroxylou , viminalis, 

 ficifolia, calophylla, pyriformis, it may be pink also. In 

 some species, e.g., ficifolia, miniata, phoenicea, it may be 

 red, even a vermillion or orange-red. In a few species 

 (e.g., pilularis) the filaments of dried flowers turn red in 

 course of time. 



The pedicel is normally rounded, but owing to compress- 

 ion it is very often strap-shaped as in botryoides, and 

 extreme cases are afforded by obcordata, and occldentcdis. 



Floiver-bud — The shape of the operculum was first used 

 as a classification character by Willdenow in his Species 

 Plantarum, 1799. He divided the twelve species then 

 known iDto two groups, "operculo conico," "operculo 

 hemisphaerico." It is undoubtedly a useful character for 

 the purpose, but variable like everything else about 

 Eucalyptus. E. tereticornis is usually looked upon as a 

 species to be diagnosed by its operculum but (Bull. Herb. 

 Bolssier, 1902, 579), I have shown that this character 

 breaks down completely as between that species and E. 

 rostrata. E. capitellata, and E. macrorrhyncha were at 

 one time separated by their opercula, but they pass into 

 each other as regards those organs. At the same time it 

 will always remain, in the hands of a judicious observer, 

 one of the most practically useful diagnostic characters 

 we have. 



