THE EUCALYPTS OF GIPPSLAND. ^^ 



' consistence and lighter colour. The marginal vein is less distant, the lateral veins 

 more numerous, nearer togetlier, and more ohscure. The angle formed by the lateral 

 veins, witli the direction of the midrib, is greater in E. viniinalis than m E. 

 stuartiana. 



The mean of a considerable number of measurements gave lOdeg. more for 

 the former than the latter. In the greater number of cases the umbels of E. 

 viminalis are three in number, arranged in a cruciform manner, while those of 

 E. stuartiana are more numerous and not so arranged. The buds of E. viminalis 

 are more ovate, with a rounded, or at most, minutely pointed lid; those of 

 E. stuartiana are distinctly pointed, or even mammelated. The stalklets of E. 

 viminalis are, as a rule, shorter, particularly in the mountain form, although m 

 some cases those of the lowland forms are as long, or longer, than those of E. 

 stuartiana. 



The fruit of E. viminalis is more ovate than that of E. stuartiana, with a rim, 

 which is always more or less convex, or frequently strongly so. 



Especially is this the case in the lowland form along the river courses, but is 

 less so in the mountain form. 



In the mountain form the fruit is usually more hemispherical than in the 

 lowhmd variety, with a convex vertex, and the valves somewhat weaker, although 

 protruding. It is in those examples which grow at the highest altitudes, as, for 

 instance, the Dargo High Plains, 4500ft., that I have observed the form of the fruit to 

 resemble that of E. stuartiana, and in these the fruit is semi-ovate, the rim not very 

 wide, and the valves, although exserted on the whole, having their insertions placed 

 a little below the level of the rim. Yet, on examining the fruit from a number of 

 trees, I observed that there was a considerable variation in that of the same tree. 

 While some agree with this description, others have the protruding convex rim and 

 exserted valves of the typical E. viminalis. (See PL 15, Figs. 14 to 22 ; PI. 14, 

 Figs. 1 to 6, 10 to 18.) 



In the variety which I am now considering, it must be noted that the habit of 

 growth, and the character of the wood, is that of E. viminahs, and not of E. stuartiana. 

 Although the cortical character is not of much value, the character of its bark places 

 it among the Leiophloiae. 



This tree is the manna-producing Eucalypt of the mountain coimtry. The 

 manna is produced as plentifuhy, in the same manner and of the same kind, as that 

 produced by the typical E. viminalis.* 



• When travelling through the Morwell district, ■where this tree forms part of the forest, some school chiklren, 

 ,^•hom I requested to point out the " manna gum," indicated this tree, saying that in December the ground under 

 the tree was white with manna. 



