49 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF EUCALYPTS. 



By W. Woolls, Ph.D., F.L.S. 



No genus, whether in reference to the identification of species, 

 or the arranging of them in groups, has given more trouble to 

 botanists than that of Eucalyptus. In the early days of the 

 colony, when only a few species were known, it was considered 

 that they might be divided into sections according to the shape of 

 the operculum or lid of the flower-buds, and hence Willdenow 

 in his Species Plantarum (1799) arranges all the species then 

 known, amounting only to 12 in number, under the two divisions 

 (1) operculo conico, and (2) operculo heniisphserico. 



With the exception of E. obliqua, L'Heritier (which, according 

 to Baron F. von Mueller, was the first of all the species rendered 

 known in Europe, having been collected in Tasmania shortly 

 before the foundation of the colony of N. S. Wales), the species 

 recorded by Willdenow were found in the primeval forests around 

 Port Jackson, probably on the spot where Sydney now stands. 

 His list is as follows : — 



(1) Operculo conico. 



E. robusta, Sm. E. resinifera, Sm. 



E. pilularis, Sm. E. capitellata, Sm. 



E. tereticomis, Sm. E. saligna, Sm. 



(2) Operculo hemisphserico. 



E. botryoides, Sm. E. obliqua, L'Her. 



E. hcemastoma, Sm. E. corymbosa, Sm. 



E. piperita, Sm. E. paniculate/,, Sm. 



(1) As far as can be ascertained from the short descriptions of 

 these species, E. robusta is known by the popular name of "Swamp 



