BY R. T. BAKER. 683 



Ovary flat-topped. Outer stamens sterile. Anthers parallel, 

 opening by terminal pores. 



Fruits conical, about 4 lines long, 3 lines broad ; rirn thin, and 

 mostly in mature fruits with a notch; capsule sunk. 



Hab.— South Creek, St. Mary's (R. T. Baker and N. V. 

 Fletcher); banks of the Nepean River (Rev. Dr. Woolls); Thirl- 

 mere (W. Cambage). 



It is named after the late Norman Fletcher, B.A., a promising 

 young botanist much interested in Eucalypts, who, in company 

 with the author, some years ago discovered trees of this species 

 at South Creek, St. Mary's, near the railway bridge. 



A tree apparently restricted in its geographical distribution to 

 the watershed of the Nepean River of this colony. 



The late Dr. Woolls was very probably the first to collect 

 material of this tree for botanical determination, and he 

 forwarded it to Mueller under the local name of " Lignum-vita? " 

 (Eucalyptographia, Dec. hi). This latter author, working on 

 morphological grounds, confounded it with the Victorian " Red 

 Box," E. polyanthema, Schau. The dried specimens of the two 

 species are very much alike in the shape of the leaves and fruits, 

 but the trees differ considerably in other characters. For 

 instance, the Victorian " Red Box " has a persistent box-bark 

 right out to the branchlets, and a dark red timber, while its 

 leaves are larger than those of this species. The New South Wales 

 tree has thick, rowjli,jlakij bark, and the wood, which is of a brown 

 colour towards the centre, is very hard and tough, as recorded by 

 Dr. Woolls (Fl. Aus. p. 236). The two timbers alone are suffi- 

 cient to differentiate the trees, whilst their essential oils possess 

 quite distinct chemical constituents. 



This is another example showing how essential it is that field 

 observations are required in order to determine correctly the 

 specific rank of Eucalypts. 



It generally occurs on the banks of rivers and creeks, growing 

 along with E. bicolor, A. Cunn., but this latter species, although 

 having a somewhat similar bark and timber, is quite different in 

 the fruits, leaves, venation and oil. 



