165 



SYNONYM. 



E. Gunnii var. (b), Howitt. . 



This dwarf variety grows in poor, boggy country in' the low-lying tracts, but also occurs in the drier 

 hills at Foster. It. usually does not grow higher than 4 feet to 5 feet, but at Foster it is found from 18 feet 

 to 20 feet in height. The bark is smooth in texture, and ashy-grey in colour, which becomes lighter in the 

 Upper brandies. Generally, when in its dwarf form it has a large butt level with the ground of several feet 

 in diameter, from which rise numerous shoots. 



In the dwarf form the leaves (excepting in the upper shoots) are somewhat broadly ovate, and are 

 opposed and sessile. The texture is thick and leathery, of a dull, rather dark green colour. In the taller 

 examples the leaves become scattered, ovate lanccolar. somewhat attenuated at the stalk, and acuminate. 

 They are equilateral, slightly shining, and of a rather brighter tint than the sessile leaves, and have the 

 marginal vein distinctly removed, the lateral veins numerous and rather spreading. Very often the terminal 

 leaves are opposed. 



This Eucalypt flowers and fruits when in a completely dwarf state. The umbels are mostly axillary, 

 and of a bright yellow to orange colour, as are also the stalks and young shoots. The stalklet is angular and 

 wrinkled, sometimes rounded, about twice as long as the sessile buds, which are 3 to 7, and much crowded 

 together. The fruit sessile in clusters of 3 to 7, semi-ovate, margin slightly compressed, valves small, not 

 exserted, stalk slightly flattened. (A. W. Howitt, op. cit., p. 101.) 



RANGE. 



" Dwarf eucalypt, Foster, Gippsland, Victoria ; A. W. Howitt, 14th November, 

 1888 " (label on specimens in Nat. Herb. Melb. ; comm. J. G. Luehmann). 



" Grows in poor, boggy country, in the low-lying tracts, but also occurs in the 

 drier hills at Foster " (A. W. Howitt, op. cit.). 



" All the undoubted samples of the species that I have yet seen on these 

 (Powlett) plains are from burnt boles, though I believe some I saw nearer Cape 

 Patterson are seedlings " (A. E. Kitson, 3rd February, 1903, in litt.). Foster is 

 further to the east. 



AFFINITIES. 



1. With E. botryoides Sm. 



Let us compare E. Kitsoniana with Victorian-grown botryoides. The juvenile 

 foliage is smaller, much thinner, more acuminate, and has the venation more 

 transverse, and the intramarginal vein closer to the edge in E. botryoides, while 

 the mature foliage is certainly more transverse-veined. I have never seen the buds 

 of E. botryoides so rounded as in E. Kitsoniana. The fruits of botryoides are more 

 cylindrical, and the valves more sunk within the orifice. The bark of E. botryoides 

 is fibrous scaly. I regret I have not been able to obtain a piece of timber. 



