356 REVISION OF THE EUCALYPTS OF RYLSTONE DISTRICT, 



specimens with the type figured by and in possession of Mr. 

 Maiden, to at once see how much the morphological differences are 

 emphasised and therefore how absolutely distinct they are from 

 Schauer's description and Cunningham's specimens. Although I 

 am strongly opposed to laying much importance on fragmentary 

 type specimens — in this case only leaves and buds are preserved, 

 yet the slightest inspection will prove conclusivel}' that these differ 

 materially from the leaves and buds of the above three species. 



The type delineated by Mr. Maiden exactly matches the "Grey 

 Box " of Victoria — the " Red Box " of the southern interior and 

 south-east corner of N.S.W., and the interior of X.S.W. west of 

 the town of Bathurst, also the species figured by Mueller in his 

 ' Eucalyptographia,' and whose description is that of a tree ivith a 

 '■'■Bo;!-" bark e.vtendim/ riyht out to the hranchlets, — one point of 

 distinction which is worth}^ of some attention in systematic work, 

 but apparently has been entireh' ignored, and which, I contend, 

 should have been taken into account in this connection when 

 synonym ising. It is this tree that has been recognised as E. 

 polyanthema in the work ' A Research on the Eucalypts.' Tt 

 is a similar case to E. go7iiocalyx and E. ehwpliora^ F.v.M., 

 which species, till pointed out by me, were considered by some as 

 one and the same tree, and as this latter species can be easily 

 separated from Mueller's description of the former, so "Grey 

 Box" of Victoria and the "Red Box" of N.8.W. with their 

 persistent " Box " bark, can thus be separated from the smooth- 

 harked Eucalypts recorded by Mr. Maiden under E. j^olyanthema. 

 It is worthy of passing note that Mr. Maiden states : — 



(1) "Tamut, H. Deane. Mr. Deane has the following note: 

 'Deciduous, smooth bark; var. E. lyolyanthema. Same as 'Red 

 Box' from Queanbeyan apparently." 



Evidently Mr. Deane was not prepared to place this tree with 

 its smooth bark in the same specific rank as the tree with a 

 "Box" bark, E. ^johjanthema, but gives it varietal position. I 

 have seen these trees, and the}- are identical with the Rylstone 

 Red Box, E. ovali/olia, and also show a constancy of bark over 

 a larare area. 



