194 A RESEARCH ON THE EUCALYPTS OF TASMANIA 



EUCALYPTUS VIRGATA, Sieb. 



f Ironbark." J 



Botany. 



Historical. — This is the first published record of this 

 tree in Tasmania, although it was originally described by 

 Sieber in 1827, from New South Wales material. 



It is the same tree as described by us in " Eucalypts 

 ■and Essential Oils" (1902), under " E. virgata," which 

 was placed by Bentham in his " Flora Australiensis " 

 (1886, Vol. III.) with E . Sieberiana, who of course had to 

 work on herbarium material alone. 



Remarks. — Up to the present time this tree has gener- 

 ally been regarded as E . Sieberiana. by botanists working 

 on the Tasmanian flora. Its correct systematic position, 

 however, was latterly suspected by us, for under E. Sie- 

 beriana (Proc. A.A.A.S. 1902, p. "372), by J. H. Maiden, 

 occurs this statement: ''I give the following Tasmanian 

 locality for this species as far as I have examined authen- 

 tic specimens: 'Ironbark,' George's Bay, August, 1878, 

 Augustus Simson (comm. W. W. Spicer). With shiny 

 fruits. First labelled E. virgata, Sieb., and then E. Sie- 

 beriana, F. V. M., by Mueller." 



From this it appears that Mueller must have associated 

 these two trees as morphologically very close, thus follow- 

 ing the determinations of Bentham in liis " Flora Aus- 

 traliensis " (Vol. III., p. 202). 



In this connection the following remarks in our work on 

 " Eucalypts and Essential Oils '" are interesting:- — 



" Much has been written recently in regard to the identi- 

 fication of Sieber's tree {vide Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 

 1896-1900). 



'' From Sieber's specific name there can be little doubt 

 but that he intended his description to apply to a small 

 twiggy Eucalyptus, with exactly the same morphological 

 characters (as later researches have shown) as the present 

 ' Mountain Ash ' {E . Sieberiana, F. v. M.), and these 

 characteristics of the two species are proved by Bentham 's 

 note (' B. Fl.' III., p. 202), for under ' E. virgata' he 

 states : ' I have described this species chiefly from Old- 

 field's, Woolls', and F. Mueller's specimens; Sieber's 

 appear to be the same, but they are only in young bud, 

 and therefore uncertain.' 



" There is on the Blue Mountains a dwarf Eucalyptus, or 

 * Mallee,' the herbarium material of which cannot be 

 separated from that of the tall tree — E . Sieberiana- but 

 the chemical constituents of each are quite different. 



