17 
be found to differ considerably — it may be a capsule, drupe, or berry ; 
and the plants may be minute herbs or gigantic trees. 
CompositjE. — T his is a large and difficult family to understand. 
The flowers or florets are eollected together in heads, each of which is 
surrounded by a calyx-like involucre, the true calyx of each floret 
being absent or reduced to a pappus. The stamens are the same in 
number as the corolla-lobes aud alternate with them. The ovary is 
inferior, and the fruit, or seed as it is usually termed, is called au 
achene. The flower-heads are said to he discoid, when wanting the 
ligulate or strap-like florets which form the rays of the circumferenco 
of the flower-head, or flower as it is popularly called ; and radiate when 
having strap-like florets at the circumference. 
— The plants of this order are often objects of interest 
from the column being so frequently elastic as to have caused children 
in some localities to name these flowers “ Jack-in-a-box.” The stamens 
are 2, having their filaments connate with tlie stylo in a column 
free from the corolla ; the anthers are sessile at the top of the 
column, 2-celled, the cells at length divaricate ; the style or stigma 
entire or 2-lobed, concealed between the anthers or protruding from 
them. The sudden movement of the column in many of the above 
plants on being touched is of so interesting a nature that it may be 
well to mention a few other plants to be found in our gardens, or 
indige7iou8, in which this phenomenon also occurs : — -The leaves of the 
Sensitive-plant {Mimosa pudiea^ and the native species {Neptuma 
gracilis) ; stamens of the Prickly Pear (Opualia) and the English 
Berberry ; the labellum of the flowers of I^/erosfyl/Sj Galeana^ and 
Drak(€a^ three genera of Orchids. But the spontaneous movement of 
the lateral leaflets of Desmodixim ggrans will be found the most 
interesting. At one time this plant was common in most Brisbane 
gardens. 
GooDE?roA^iE.E. — This is an almost, exclusively Australian order, 
and may be known pretty well by the beautiful cup-shaped or 2-lipped 
dilatation, called an iudusium, at the top of the style which encloses 
the stigma. The style is undivided, except in the one genus Calogyne. 
In the order of true Heaths, Euicack.(E, and that of tlie Australian 
Heaths, Epachibe^, the same distinction occurs as in Malvacem and 
Sterculiaceae, the first having 2-celled and the last 1-celled anthers, 
only, it will be seen, reversed in order. Our garden Azaleas may be 
taken as examples of Ericacese, and that common little heath-like plant, 
with sharp prickly leaves, and small white tubular flowers with dense 
white hairs in the throat, called Leucopogon juniperlna, an example 
of Epacridese. 
Many ornamental shrubs, both indigenous and cultivated, belong- 
ing to the Olive family, are met with in this colony; for instance, the 
Jasmines, Lilacs, Ash, ^oteltsas^ Olives, and Ligustrims. That these are 
closely allied will at once be seen upon examining the various flowers 
and fruits. It may be some advantage, however, to know that the 
stems and branches are usually thickly studded with more or less 
prominent lenticelles. 
Persons often are found to confuse plants of the orders 
Apocynaceae and Asclepiadese ; but if flowers are obtainable, aud their 
anthers observed, the doubts are at once solved, for in the first-named 
B 
