BY THE REV. W. WOOLLS. 57 



Dividing Range. He accompanied Lieut. Oxley, then Surveyor- 

 General of the colony, in his expedition to explore the Lachlan in 

 1817, and subsequently visited Liverpool Plains by a practicable 

 pass over the Range. In these expeditions he discovered several 

 new species, whilst about the same period Sieber appears to have 

 collected specimens on the Blue Mountains. Cunningham was 

 indefatigable in sending collections to Europe, but such was the 

 apathy of those days in reference to botanical discoveries in 

 Australia, that many of his packages remained unopened for nearly 

 a quarter of a century ; and it was not until Mr. Bentham was 

 engaged in preparing, with the assistance of Baron Mueller, his 

 great work on the Flora of Australia, that Cunningham's labours 

 were in any way appreciated. It must be admitted that the genus 

 Eucalyptus was not a favourite with our early botanists. They 

 found so much difficulty in distinguishing one species from another, 

 that it used to be said the workmen at Port Jackson knew more 

 about the different kinds of Eucalypts than those who endeavoured 

 to define species by the usual characters. Even within my 

 recollection, it was maintained by some that many of what are 

 now regarded as species were simply varieties, whilst it was 

 asserted by others that a process of hybridisation was going on 

 amongst them. In the English Encyclopaedia, which was published 

 in 185 4, a writer remarks "in many species the leaves are so 

 variable in their form and other characters at different ages of the 

 tree, or in different situations, that it is a matter of difficulty to 

 know how they are to be botanically distinguished from each 

 other ; and in fact the subject of the distinction of species has 

 hardly yet been taken up, no botanist feeling competent to under- 

 take the task without some personal acquaintance with the plants 

 in a native state. The leaves, instead of presenting one of their 

 surfaces to the sky and the other to the earth, as is the case with 

 the trees in Europe, are often arranged with their faces vertical, so 

 that each side is equally exposed to the light." He then goes on 

 to lament over the difficulty of understanding the names by which 

 the colonists call Eucalypts in different parts of Australia, and 

 expresses a wish that some settled nomenclature may be introduced. 







