184 A RESEARCH ON THE EUCALYPTS OF TASMANIA 



Remarks. — This is now the first definite record of this 

 tree as a species in Tasmania. 



Hooker, in his " Flora Tasmaniae " (1859), gives addi- 

 tional data to his original description of E. gigantea 

 (" Lond. Journ. of Bot/' VI. 479. 1847)), and in this addi- 

 tional data he includes two other trees besides his original 

 " Stringy-bark "—E. gigantea {E . obliqua). The one he 

 mentions under the name of '' Stringy-bark Gum " {loc. 

 cif.) growing up to 4000 feet altitude is E. Delegatensis. 



E. obliqua and E. regnans grow intermixed at lower 

 elevations, and these are what Hooker evidently refers to 

 in " Flora Tasmaniae " : '' Specimens have been felled 

 in the valleys at the base of Mt. Wellington.'' Hooker's 

 description of E . gigantea in his classical work must there- 

 fore be regarded as a composite one, and this is well 

 brought out by Maiden in his " Critical Revision of the 

 Genus Eucalyptus " (Vol. I., p. 58), under " E . obliqua," 



This species, E . Delegatensis, cannot be included under 

 E. gigantea, for that name belongs undoubtedly to E. 

 obliqua, as shown by the original description of Hooker 

 in his " London Journal of Botany " (1847), and later by 

 Bentham and Mueller. 



Hooker, in his introduction to the genus (" Fl. Tas.''), 

 speaks ''of a possibility of his having confounded two 

 species in that work^ — the ' Swamp Gum ' and ' Stringy- 

 bark ' — under that species." These two are now known 

 as E . regnans and E . obliqua respectively — -the original of 

 his description in '' London Journal of Botany " will cer- 

 tainly not match E . Delegatensis, for it is not th^. 

 " Stringy-bark colonorum " as stated by him. 



Again, Hooker's remarks ('' Fl. Tas.") : ''In some 

 varieties the young branches have a fine glaucous-pur j)Je 

 bloom in them, especially in Alpine localities; such is the 

 case with Mr. Gunn's No. 1095, from the banks of Lake 

 St. Clair, where it forms a forest on one side of the lake 

 only, to the exclusion of all other timbers " — apply to this 

 species, and not his E . gigantea {E . obliqua), (" Lond. 

 Journ. Bot." 1847). 



The material was first collected for the museum by Mr 

 C. F. Laseron in 1908, on Mt. Wellington, where it is ? 

 very common tree, occurring chiefly above 2500 feet. This 

 altitude is interesting, as in the original locality from 

 which the species was described — Delegate Mt. — it occurs 

 at an elevation between 4000 and 5000 feet. 



Mr. L. G. Irby, the museum collector, personally inter- 

 viewed Mr. Stephens, in order to ascertain exactlv where 



