T H E TASM A NIA N NATU R A LIST 
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outer portion ; in the other of which Epacris is typical each carpel 
develops many ovules, and the fruit has a thin dry wall. 1 he Styphelia 
tribe is a very large one, and in order to handle it conveniently most 
botanists have divided it into genera most of which are founded upon 
small unimportant differences; others in an endeavour to maintain 
genera upon more natural lines do not recognize these artificial distinc¬ 
tions. In consequence of this we have two schemes in use in Austra¬ 
lia, the former whose chief exponent was Robert Brown, is most in use 
in Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland, and the West, the other 
with the powerful support of Von Mueller is in vogue in Victoria and 
South Australia. As the tendency all the world over is to split up large 
genera into smaller ones, even if the distinctions must be purely 
arbitrary, there is at least convenience in supporting Brown’s classification. 
In Tasmania we have members of ten genera of the Styphelia tribe. 
Styphelia has relatively large flowers, the corolla often exceeding an 
inch in length. 'The lobes are about as long as the tube and are much 
recurved, they are clothed with rather long hairs on the upper surface. 
The stamens protrude considerably. The flowers are not numerous and 
are placed singly in the leaf axils, but there may be one or two rudiments 
of flowers under the bracts. The flower stalk is closely covered with 
bracts, progressively larger as they approach the calyx ; the upper pair, 
termed bracteoles, closely overlap the sepals, which they resemble The 
outer covering of the fruit is very thin, and is in some cases reduced to 
a skin-like covering to the hard five chambered stone. 
Astroloma has also the flowers single in the axils and the bracts are 
similarly aranged. The corolla tube is long, but the lobes are only 
shortly recurved at the tip, and the stamens do not protude. The fruit 
is also similar, but is generally more fleshy. 
Lissanthe, In this genus, as in most that follow, the flowers are 
small. Iustead of being single they are clustered in the axils ; each 
flower is in the axil of a single bract, and the two bracteoles closely 
overlap the calyx. The corolla lobes are short, spreading, and are only 
slightly hairy on the upper surface. The fruit is round, fleshy, with a 
five chambered stone. 
Leucopogon is very similar to Lissanthe, but the upper surface of 
the corolla lobes is densely covered with white hairs. In rare instances 
the flower appears solitary, but even then there is at least one rudiment 
below it. 
Cyathodes. The flowers are always solitary in the leaf axils, and 
their stalks clothed with bracts. The corolla may be hairy on the upper 
surface, but never as much so as in Leucopogon. The fruit is more 
fleshy but otherwise similar, but in our common Cheeseberry the stone is 
ten chambered. 
Monotoca has very small flowers, generally clustered, rarely solitary; 
the corolla lobes are hairless. There is a single bract and two bracteoles, 
but the distinguishing mark of the genus is that the fruit has a single 
cavity, containing one seed. 
