Erythrococca and Micrococca. 
599 
hairs 1 so generally met with in the male flower ; what at first seems a 
striking difference is therefore in reality only a case of conformity with 
a general rule. 
In speaking of the bodies which bear these viscid hairs the term 4 recep- 
tacular glands *, used by Bentham, is preferable to the term ‘ disc 5 employed 
by Baillon and Mueller in the case of E. aculeata , and less definitely by 
Mueller as regards Claoxylon generally. 2 The word ‘disc 5 , owing to the 
wide morphological interpretation which it permits, is rather unsatisfactory, 
and its use, so far as the genus Erythrococca is concerned, is not altogether 
convenient. In some of the more nearly allied genera these glands are 
staminodes and show every transition from a perfect stamen to a simple, 
more or less amorphous gland. We have seen that, in Claoxylon , one species, 
C. sandwicense , affords equally direct evidence of the same transition. 
Direct testimony to this effect is not very often met with in Erythrococca , 
but indirect evidence as to the staminodial character of these glands is by 
no means wanting. Cases of this are encountered in the section Adenoclao- 
xylon. In E. Kirkii, where the extrastaminal .glands are usually connate in 
an urceolum, we find no very definite indication of the staminodial nature 
of the glands, but in E. mitis , where these glands are free, they are frequently 
thickened and 3-lobed, and much resemble imperfect stamens. In E. bon - 
gensis and E. rigidifolia , where the extrastaminal ring met with in E . Kirkii 
and E. mitis does not occur, the stamens of the outermost series have each 
a pair of minute glands adnate to the base of the filaments. In E. Paxil, 
where there is usually an extrastaminal ring which is incomplete, some at 
least of the stamens exhibit the same association with a pair of receptacular 
glands. 3 The meaning of the arrangement becomes apparent in E. olaci- 
folia , where there is an extrastaminal ring which is usually complete, but 
where, when the ring is incomplete, a missing gland may be replaced by 
a perfect stamen. The glands of the extrastaminal ring are usually con¬ 
siderably larger than the interstaminal glands of the same species, and may 
reasonably be interpreted as representing a fused pair of basal glands 
belonging to a stamen which is itself suppressed. This interpretation is 
more or less confirmed by the arrangement met with in E. subspicata, where 
the extrastaminal ring consists of twelve glands agreeing in shape and size 
with the interstaminal ones, but united at their bases as six ‘ pairs 5 of glands, 
1 The function of these viscid hairs, among which, in open flowers, insects are occasionally 
found entangled, calls for more attention in the field than it has so far received. 
2 In the cases of Adenoclaoxylon and Athroandra, which immediately concern us since both are 
now transferred to Erythrococca, and again in the case of Discoclaoxylon,, Mueller avoids the use of 
the term ‘disc 5 . But the ‘urceolum’ spoken of under Adenoclaoxylon and Athroandra and the 
6 urceolate ring of glands 5 described under Discoclaoxylon are definitely referred to under Gymno - 
claoxylon as ‘ an extrastaminal disc 5 and under Euclaoxylon as a ‘ disc surrounding the receptacle ’. 
Mueller, however, does not employ the term ‘ disc 5 in connexion with the interstaminal glands, which 
differ from the extrastaminal ones in situation, but do not differ from them in character. 
3 This is well shown by Rendle in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot., xxxvii, t. 3, fig. 5. 
