ON THE IDENTIFICATION OF A SPECIES OF EUCALYPTUS 

 FROM THE PHILIPPINES. 



By Joseph Henry Maiden, 



Government Botanist of Neiv South Wales and Director of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney. 



In the Botany of the United States Exploring- Expedition during 

 the years 1838-1842, under the command of Charles Wilkes, U. S. 

 Navy/' there is given* an account of a plant found near Caldera, 

 Mindanao, one of the Philippine Islands. Leaves and fruits were 

 available, and Asa Gray says, '"I thus record the plant under the name 

 Eue(dy2)tus niultijlora Rich, given by Mr. Rich^' in the collection.'' 



Bentham refers'' to this specimen in the following words: 



A fifth species of Eucalyptus from a still more distant region, Mindanao, one of the 

 Philippine Islands, is described by A. Gray in the Botany of the American Explor- 

 ing Expedition, '' under the name of E. multiflora Rich, from a specimen in leaf, and 

 witli a panicle of old fruits from which the calyx limb and operculmn, if any, are 

 fallen away and the open capsules have lost all their seeds. The four-celled (not 

 three-celled ) capsule is the only character leading us to suppose that it may be a 

 Eucalypttis rather than a Tristania or a Metrosideros. No mention of it occurs in 

 Blanco's Flora. 



It will thus be seen that the ver}' identity of the genus of this plant 

 was doubted by an eminent authorit3\ 



A short time ago, through the kindness of the Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, Washington, D. C, I was able to examine (rray's 

 specimen. It is No. 25483 of the U. S. National Herbarium, and as 

 it turns out to be identical with Eucalyptux iKiiidhilana F. v. ^Miillei', 

 E. 11)1(1 till ora Rich, must fall because the name is pn^occupied {E. 

 multiflora Poiret, probablj a synonym of E. jj'dularlx. Smith).' 



«Phanerogamia by Asa Gray, I, 1854. 



'' Page 554. 



•William Rich, botanist of the U. S. ship Relief. In Captain Wilkes' narrativi- 

 Mr. Rich's name is given as one who made an excursion from Manila, and he 

 speaks of "our botanical gentlemen botanizing in the forests of Mindanao." 



"Journ. Linn. Soc. (Botany), X, p. 14S. 



« Page 554. 



/See DC. Prod., Ill, p. 217, under E. persicifolia Tjodd. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXVI— No. 1327. 



