263 
Bentham defines the genus and the Australian species rubifolia, in the 
following words : 
Calyx divided almost to the base into 4 or 5 more or less imbricate segments. 
Petals as many as calyx-segments. 
Stamens twice as many as petals, inserted round the disk ; anthers small. 
Oiary free, 2- or rarely 3-celled, with several pendulous ovules in each cell ; styles distinct, each 
with a terminal or decurrent stigma. 
Capsule oblong or ovoid, septicidally dehiscent. 
Seeds oblong reniform or nearly globular, usually (but not always) hairy ; embryo in the axis 
of a fleshy albumen. 
Trees or shrubs. 
Leaves opposite, simple, or digitately or pinnately compound, with 3 or more leaflets. 
Flowers in simple racemes, terminal or axillary, solitary or clustered. (B.F1. ii, 444.) 
Botanical description. Species, W. rubifolia. Benth., in Flora Australiensis ii, 
445 (1804), so Mueller in his Second Census, but Bentham loc. cit. credits it 
to Mueller in the following words : 
" F. Muell. (under Geissois)." 
A small tree, the young branches, inflorescence and veins of the leaflets more or less clothed with 
long fine hairs. 
Leaflets 3 or 5, digitate, ovate-elliptical, acuminate, sharply serrate, much narrowed into a 
petiolule, rigid but not thick, the primary parallel veins very prominent underneath, with 
transverse reticulations, the terminal one usually 2 to 3 inches long, or rarely more, the 
lateral ones smaller. 
Stipules large, hairy, deciduous. (These must be floral bracts ; there are no stipules. J.H.M.) 
Racemes axillary, usually several together on a very short common peduncle, 11 to 3 inches' long 
when in fruit. 
Flowers not seen. (The floral bracts are large and persistent ; the petals are 3 in number, and 
there are 6 stamens; the anthers have a connective. J.H.M.) 
Pedicels very short or scarcely any. 
Sepals shorter than the fruit. 
Capsules reflexed, Ii to nearly 2 lines long, narrow, hairy, with 2, rarely 3, recurved styles, 
the stigmas shortly decurrent. 
Seeds two or three in each carpel, narrow-oblong, the testa more or less extended into a loose 
wing at one or both ends, or in some seeds the nucleus appears to extend nearly the whole 
length. (B.F1. ii, 445.) 
This species certainly bears a superficial resemblance to Ackama Muelleri, 
See Part LV, page 91. 
To summarise some of the chief points, W. rubifolia has : 
Leaves in 3's or 5's (digitate). Our one Weinmannia is therefore digitate, not pinnate as the 
original species is. 
Stamens 6 (anthers have connective). According to Bentham and Hooker the genus requires 
6-10. 
Petals 3. According to Bentham and Hooker the genus requires 4-10. 
Stipules none. 
Floral bracts large and persistent. (There has been some confusion with stipules.) 
