209 



short, detoid and flattened, each with two or three flowers. 

 Calyx-tube much less rounded and more angular than fruit, 

 about three lines long, with a similar diameter at its dilated 

 orifice ; operculum short, verrucous, with orbicular point. 

 Fruit hard, generally winged or angled twice, globose or ovoid, 

 from three to four lines in diameter, much dilated at orifice, 

 the rim rounded and slightly prominent, capsule sunk, but 

 valves protruding when open. 



Introductory Remarks by Baron Yon Mueller, K.C.M.G., 

 M. and Ph. D., E.R.S. 



" Of the genus Eucalyptus twelve species have hitherto been 

 recorded from Tasmania, and as fairly well marked, three of 

 these being endemic, the others occurring also on the mainland 

 of Australia. The species peculiar to the island are Eucalyptus 

 cordata, E. urnigera, and E. vernicosa — all three linked together 

 by several characteristics, so that it is not always easy to 

 refer occasional aberrant or transitory forms to the species 

 from which they originated. In my Eucalyptography, the E. 

 cordata became rather extensively elucidated, through the kind 

 aid of Mr. T. Stephens and Mr. E. Abbott, its close relation to 

 E. urnigera being then brought under particular notice ; but 

 E. vernicosa remained hitherto, in the above-mentioned work, 

 unattended to for want of sufficient material — though already, 

 some years ago, a lithographic drawing of its typical state be- 

 came prepared and printed. This was withheld from publica- 

 tion, as it seemed likely that the plant, in its very dwarf state, 

 represented the highland form of a taller plant of sub-aipine 

 regions, analogies offered by some other plants also in Tasmania 

 pointing in that direction. Indeed, when ascending Mount 

 Eield East in 1869, I came across an Eucalypt, at elevations 

 between 3,000 and 4,000 feet, which rose in that frigid region 

 to fully 30 feet, and which seemed to me rather a tall state of 

 E. vernicosa than a variety of E. Grunnii. Yery far away from 

 any settlement, and in so inclement a tract of country, my stay 

 could only be brief — protective cover and provender having to 

 be carried by pedestrians, and a track for some distance to be 

 cut through the dense sub-alpine scrubs. This particular tree 

 differed from the well-known " Cider-tree " of Tasmania in 

 its Yery rigid, dark-green leaves, with a tendency to marginal 

 crenulation, and with a somewhat oily lustre on both parts ; 

 moreover the calyces being somewhat verrucular, rough and 

 their opircular portion not prominently pointed, as in the nor- 

 mal state of E. Grunnii, defined by Sir Joseph Hooker's original 

 diagnosis (London "Journal of Botany," III, 499) ; the fruits 

 being also more abbreviated than those described in 1844, and 

 as delineated by Pitch in 1860 ("Elor. Tasm.," I, Plate xxvii). 



M 



