622 SPECIES OE EUCALYPTS EIEST KNOWN IN EUROPE, 



the names have been frequently applied to very different trees. 

 It was not until the publication of the third volume of the Flora 

 Ausfraliensis, and still more recently the Decades of the JEucali/pfO' 

 grapJiia, that sufficient progress was made in the study of the 

 genus to enable even Botanists of some standing to determine the 

 species to which Willdenow referred. There is yet a great 

 difficulty in identifying some species without reference to the 

 texture of the bark or the shape of the anthers, and this difficulty 

 was considerably greater in the last century, when the mode of 

 grouping the species was limited to the comparative length of 

 the operculum. "When therefore, European Botanists had before 

 them merely dried specimens (and those too in some instances 

 without fruit), and when, moreover, they were not aware that the 

 operculum sometimes differs in form and length on the same trees^ 

 we need not wonder that the early descriptions are anything but 

 satisfactory, and that some of them might be applied to several 

 species. 



The genus Eucalyptus was founded by L'Heritier on the species 

 E. ohliqua, and was so called in allusion to the operculum or lid 

 which covers the flowers before their expansion. Dr. W. 

 Anderson (the Surgeon of Cook's second and third voyages) 

 bestowed on the genus the name Aromadendrum, a name which 

 Baron Mueller considers by no means inappropriate, though it 

 must be admitted that the world-wide appellation Eucalyptus is 

 in many respects preferable. Of the twelve species given by 

 Willdenow, only one is Tasmanian (though it is now known to 

 occur in South Australia and Victoria), whilst the remaining 

 eleven represent the Eucalypts which once flourished in the 

 immediate vicinity of Sydney Cove, and which still may be seen 

 here and there within the heads of Port Jackson. One of the 

 earliest collectors of Australian Plants was Mr. John White, 

 Surgeon- Greneral to the first Fleet which arrived in 1788, and 

 who, during a residence of seven years in Sydney, collected a 

 considerable number of plants, and made drawings of others, 



