RECORDS OF AUSTRALIAN BOTANISTS. 243 



Wilson, John B. 



Wilson, Thomas B. . . 



Winnecke, Charles . . 



Woods, Julian E. Tenison — See Tenison- Woods 



Woolls, William 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 



Portraits of Amalie Dietrich 

 Ronald Gunn 

 William Macarthur 

 Carl Wilhelmi. 



(3) 116 



(5) 26 



(2) 170 



(1) 130 



4— THE CINNAMOMUMS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Py RICHARD T. BAKER, F.L.S., Curator of the Technological Museum, Sydney. 



Historical. 



The genus Cinnamomum has now been before the botanical world 

 for nearl ^ 200 years, but was definitely established by Blume in 

 1825, in Bi/^n 568, where some half-dozen species are described — all 

 from Java and Malaya. 



As botanical knowledge extended it was found that the genus 

 had representatives in India and Ceylon, and Hooker in his " Flora 

 of British India " enumerates 26 species, with a large number of 

 synonyms, many of which will no doubt be restored to specific 

 rank when systematised on a broader base than morphology 

 permits. 



The genus also extends through the Malayan Archipelago, 

 China and Japan, where its greatest economic product has been 

 its camphor. 



The first record of the genus in Australia was made by Baron 

 von Mueller in 1865-6, Fragm. V, 165, under the name of C. Lau- 

 hatii, from material obtained from Sea View Range, Rockingham 

 Bay, Queensland, and this name was repeated in 1870 by Bentham 

 in the Flora Austrahensis, vol. v, p. 303, but placed as a synonym of 

 C. Tamala — the locality being Mueller's. 



Its next specific identification was in 1892, when material 

 which was thought to be Beilschmiedia obhisifolia, was pointed out 

 to be a Cinnamomum. In this connection Bailey (Bot. Bull., v. 

 25) states that " Professor D. Ohver, of the Kew Herbarium, to 

 whom I sent ^specimens of the bark for the museum, and also herba- 

 rium specimens, hinted at the probability of its being a Cinna- 

 momum." Perfect material coming to hand, Bailey later gave 

 it its true systematic position under the name of Cinnamomum 

 Oliver i, loc. supra. 



(1) The italics are mine. 



