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Telopea Vol. 6(4): 1996 
dried materials were further dissected with a sticky minuten pin to remove hairs 
that covered meristems. Prepared materials were viewed on a JEOL 840 scanning 
electron microscope and images were captured on Kodak T-Max 100, 120 mm roll 
film for later comparison. During dissections, some materials were photographed 
with a Nikon F2 on Kodak T-Max 100, 35 mm film, particularly when developing 
primordia had to be removed, to show the relationships of parts. 
Terminology 
Inflorescence terminology used is primarily the same as that in Briggs & Johnson 
(1979), White (1979, 1984), Grimes (1992) and in some cases Weberling (1989). Some 
commonly used terms here include; a metamer to define the basic unit of an 
inflorescence that is composed of four distinct structures: 1) the internode proximal 
to the leaf homologue 2) the node and 3) a leaf homologue or bract or pherophyll, 
that subtends an 4) axillary meristem that can have differing developmental fates 
(White 1979,1984). Principal axis refers to an axis that supports the metamers under 
discussion. Successive principal axes branch from the main axis (Fig. 1) and are 
called the primary, secondary, tertiary ... axes, each of which is a module the product 
of a single meristem or specifically a subunit (Grimes 1992) when referring to the 
sylleptic nature of the buds. Subunit is used here to describe the branches of the 
inflorescence and not the inflorescence strictly as inflorescences in Carmrvonia can 
develop from sylleptic or proleptic buds. It should also be noted that a flower is also 
a subunit although not referred to in that context here. To describe the structure and 
flowering pattern in Carmrvonia, the sequential and acropetal initiation of leaf 
homologue or bract primordia within a single module and subunit are assigned 
ascending greek letters (a, p, y, 8, e .,.). For example the first two leaf-homologue- 
primordia initiated from the flanks of an axillary meristem (i.e. prophylls) are termed 
the a-phyll and the P-phyll. 
Observations 
Mature organography 
Carnarvonia araliifolia is a rainforest canopy tree up to 30 m tall. The spirally arranged 
leaves can be simple, pinnate or palmately compound, and often covered with a 
dense indumentum when young. The inflorescence is a heterothetic racemiform- 
panicle (Fig. 1). In some specimens, flowering axes or modules proliferate on stems 
for upwards of 30 leaf nodes (approximately 60 cm), and five season old axes. 
Inflorescences are variable and can be divided into two blastotelic types based on 
the position of the principal axes relative to the youngest shoot, the anauxotelic and 
auxotelic (Briggs & Johnson, 1979). In most material examined, the inflorescence 
terminates the growth of the shoot (anauxotelic shoot systems) in which case there 
is a general serial transition of the leaves from compound to simple to bracteose 
(frondobracteose inflorescence), with inflorescence axes or subunits in each axil. 
New vegetative shoots tend to develop in the upper leaf axils, often being initiated 
from an auxiliary axillary meristem in an oblique transverse position next to the 
fallen inflorescence axis or persistent infructescent axis. Closer investigations reveal 
that the proleptic vegetative buds are initiated proximal to the inflorescence axes on 
the side facing the subtending leaf (Fig. 2) and are subsequently displaced to an 
oblique position. In some cases, shoot systems were auxotelic with axillary subunitary 
inflorescences either near the apex, or developing numerous nodes away from the 
