Niedenzu (in E. & P., Nat. Pfl. Fam. 3, 7, 1893, 87—89) included the following genera in his subtribe Metrosiderinae: Metrosideros, Spermolepis2 (= Arillastrum), Cloëzia, Lysicarpus, Tepualia, Syncarpia, Xanthostemon, Pleurocalyptus, and Tristania. The Metrosiderinae was distinguished from the Leptosperminae by usually having flowers in axillary groups, not solitary, and from the Eucalyptinae by having narrow, not broad based petals. A preliminary survey of the above genera indicates that Niedenzu’s subtribe Metrosiderinae is not a natural group and in this paper, the first of a series, a critical examination of reproductive features of Arillastrum Panch. ex Baillon leads to the conclusion that this genus, notwithstanding its narrow petal bases, is most nearly related to the genera comprising Niedenzu’s subtribe Eucalyptinae.