126 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Mr. Howitt {op. ciL, p. 94), has pointed out how close they are, 

 and their differences. 



The character of club-shaped buds must be applied with 

 caution, as apparently common to the alpine form of B. dives, to 

 £. Sieberianu, and -£". hcBinastoma also. 



The affinity of E. dives in its alpine form to E. obliqua is not 

 so close as to E, Sieberiana, but it is undoubted, and is not to 

 be neglected. Baron von Mueller was even deceived by the 

 resemblance.* 



Its affinity with E. regnans, F. v. M., and E. virgata, Sieb., 

 is less close still, but it exists, and space forbids me to go into 

 the question at this place. It is very difficult to define the limits 

 of a number of species of the Renantherse. 



Let us further consider E. dives in its affinity to E. Sieberiana. 

 Following is what Mr. Howitt says of it under the name of E. 

 Sieberiana {b) in his " Eucalypts of Gippsland " (Trans. Royal 

 Society of Victoria, ii.) (I am responsible for the identification 

 of this tree with E. dives) f : — 



" E. Sieberiatia (b) occurs only in the mountains above the limit 

 of E. Sieberiana (a), J sometimes as low as 2,500 feet, but in other 

 places, as on the summit of the Great Dividing Range at the 

 sources of the Livingstone Creek, when E. Sieberiana (a) ceases at 

 3,000 feet, and E. Sieberiana (b) commences at 3,500 feet. It 

 extends on the summits of the higher mountains, e.g., the Bowen 

 Mountains, near Omeo, and the Dargo High Plains, to about 

 4,500 feet. I estimate the height to which the tree attains as 

 not exceeding 200 feet. The bark is fibrous, and rather like that 

 of E. obliqua, but perhaps more flaky ; it is persistent upon the 

 bole, the upper part of which and the branches are smooth, 

 but with much detached bark pendent from the forks and 

 from the termination of the persistent bark. The seedlings 

 of these two trees have much the same features, but that of 

 the (a) variety is much darker, but otherwise no marked difference 

 can be observed between the seedlings of these varieties. § The 

 timber of (b) variety is of a light colour, long in grain, and re- 

 markably fissile, yet elastic. It is not a heavy wood, and it seems 



* To my mind the resemblance of £. Sieberiana {b) to E. Sieberiana [a] is far 

 stronger than is that oi E. atnygdalina {b) to E. obliqua, which, however, is 

 marked.- A. W. H. 



+ I do not say that your identification of my E. Sieberiana (b) with E. dives 

 is not fully justified. But I am still somewhat in suspense. Assuming that it is 

 so, however, I should then say that it bears the same relation to other varieties — 

 e.g., my amygaalina {b) — as E. regnans does to E. atnygdalina, with which 

 it was formerly united. — A. W. H. 



X Normal E. Sieberiana, F. v. M. 



§ I have observed a very characteristic difference between the seedlings of E. 

 Sieberiana (b), E. atnygdalina (b) (Yertchuk), and the broad-leaved mountain 

 atnygdalina, which I figured from Dargo. — A. W. H. 



