BY J. H. MAIDEN. 503 



but the characteristics of the iiowers and fruits are far less 

 marked, being ahnost reduced in E. botryoides to a shorter and 

 blunter lid, an usually more angular tube of the calyx and 

 retracted, totally enclosed valves of the fruit " (Eucalyptographia, 

 Mueller, under E. saligna). 



In the same work, under E. botryoides^ he says : — " When the 

 tree has arisen on rich soil along running streams, its wood is 

 regarded as one of the best among those of Eucalypts . . . 

 [this is E. saligna, J.H.M.]- when the tree grows on the coast- 

 sands, its wood is still useful for sawing and fencing, though the 

 stems occur there often gnarled . . . [this is E. botryoides, 

 J.H.M.]. E. saligna is in nature easily enough distinguished 

 by the smoothness of its bark, which secedes in its outer layers 

 successively; otherwise the differences are slight, consisting in 

 the often somewhat longer lid and in fruits with half exserted 

 valves.'' 



E. saligna is the stately " Blue Gum " of rich soil flats, which 

 yields the timber so well and so favourably known in New 

 South Wales. Bark smooth, and with a little rough bark at the 

 butt. E. botryoides is known as " Bangalay " or " Bastard 

 Mahogany," and is a rough-barked (corky scaly) gnarled tree 

 found in low-lying situations near the sea. E. botryoides has 

 coarser fruits, with the valves not exserted; buds coarser, more 

 squat; opercula more blunt. I see no difference in the seedling 

 leaves or in the timber. Between the two types, as already 

 defined, I find perfect connecting links; and the differences are, 

 I am satisfied, entirely owing to soil and aspect. 



Messrs. Baker and Smith distilled leaves of E. saligria from 

 Lismore, N.S.W., and of E. botryoides from Milton, N.S.W., and 

 found differences in the composition of the particular distillates 

 obtained by them."^' I would suggest that here we have an 

 excellent opportunity, by making a series of distillations of leaves 

 of E. saligna and E. botryoides to see whether any real difference 

 between the trees can be ascertained that morphology fails to 



* ' Research on the Eucalypts. ' 



