206 
Now we come to consideration of a species : 
Botanical description. Species, G. Benthamii F.v.M. Docum. Intercol. Exhib. 
(No. 5, Australian Vegetation), 31 (1866). Name only. To be noted in conjunction 
with the description of Geissois Benthamii F.v.M. in Fragm. v, 180 (1866), which 
is therefore the date of the species. Mueller's description in the latter place is so 
disjointed that it gives a very unsatisfactory description if translated literally, and 
therefore I give a free translation : 
A tree said to attain 100 to 150 feet in height, with glabrous branchlets. 
Leaflets ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 2 to 10 inches long, serrulate, prominently penniveined 
and slightly reticulate veined; stipules coriaceous, orbicular or nearly so, often an inch 
long. 
Floivers in spikes, dense when young and closely resembling the spikes of Polygoni, with canal- 
iculate, semi-lanceolate bracteoles 1 line long, the fruit-bearing spikes several inches long. 
Pedicels 1J to 2 inches long, rhachis slightly silky-hairy. 
Sepals 5, valvate, 1J to 2 lines long, yellow. 
Petals none. 
Stamens 20 to 25, yellow, twice as long as the sepals, with setaceous filaments. 
Anthers with 2 round cells opening laterally. 
Styles 2, glabrous, 1 line long, with minute capitate stigmas. 
Ovary imperfectly 2-celled, semi-ovate, silky. 
Disc annular (crenulate, J.H.M.), glabrous. 
Capsule elliptical-cylindrical, 8 to 9 lines long. 
To summarise, we have : 
Leaves in threes or fives (digitate) ; stipules not seen (perhaps they are deciduous, 
as in Weinmannia) ; floral bracts, none ; calyx lobes, five ; petals, none ; stamens, about 
fifteen inserted round disc. 
As to " stipules " which are noted by Bentham (op. tit.) under Geissois as 
" Stipules orbicular, coriaceous, more persistent than in most CunoniesR," and by 
Bentham and Hooker (Genera Plantarum i, 650), as " large, membranous," and under 
Weinmannia as "various, deciduous," one must not confuse these with floral bracts, 
i.e., larger bracts originally enclosing the inflorescence, which are present in some species, 
but which do not appear to have been noticed in botanical descriptions. 
We have examined Weinmannia from New Caledonia, the Philippines, &c., and' 
these possess floral bracts. No specimen of Geissois available to us has what may be 
termed stipules. In the case of Weinmannia we have interpetiolar stipules in W. 
pinnata, but such have not been seen in any Australian species so far. 
We have also perused two modern works, viz., Flora of Jamaica, Fawcett and 
Rendle (British Museum, Natural History) Vol. 3, Fig. 107, and in a careful figure of 
Weinmannia pinnata L.f., the species on which the genus was founded, stipules are not 
shown, and apparently only floral bracts at the base of the inflorescence. 
In the figure of W. racemosa L.f., in Cheeseman's " Illustrations of the New 
Zealand Flora," i, pi. 43, stipules are not shown; there are floral bracts in the right-hand 
bottom figure. 
