239 



AFFINITIES. 



1. E. capitellata, Sm. 



There is no sharp line of demarcation between ii". etigcnioides and E. capitellata, 

 intermediate forms occnrring- between them in regard to buds, frnit, leaves, and even 

 timber. 



Some fruits show a tendency to E. capitellata in having fruits larger and 

 more " squatty " or coraiiressed than those of E. eugenioides. But the valves of the 

 fruits are not so exserted, nor are the buds so flat and angular as those of 

 E. copiteltata usually are. The bnds are, in fact, those of E. eiigetiloides. 



E. eugenioides displays a tendency to form globular masses of closely-packed 

 sessile fruits, after the manner of E. capitellata. These globular masses present 

 such a different appearance to the ordinary form of E. eugenioides that they may, 

 at first sight, be reasonably supposed to form a vai-iety, but we have many gradations 

 between them and the ordinary form. 



The state of being capitate is by no means confined to E. capitellata, and 

 seems to me induced by exuberance of fioriferousness. Eor example, at Newport, 

 near Sydney, where E. eugenioides was flowering as freely as I have ever seen it, 

 and covered with honey-seeking insects, on the same twig we find dense heads of 

 fruits and more open heads with distinctly pedicellnte fruits. There ^ve have also 

 the roughened rim and the white-dotted fruits. 



To recapitulate somewhat, we have : — 



E. eugenioides fruits may be sessile ; they may be compressed ; they may 

 precisely resemble those of E. cap)itellata in shape, as regards the sunk valved forms. 

 The valves arc rarely, if ever, so exsert as in some forms of capitellata. 



In E. eugenioides the buds are smaller; occasionally slightly angled, but never 

 to the extent that those of capitellata are (with the possible exceptions referred to, 

 e.g., young buds of Berrima and Wiugello, pp. 215, 216). 



Sometimes they, like the leaves, are shining like those of E. capitellata 

 often are. 



The juvenile leaves may be broadish as in Pigure v in Howitt, Trans, llojj. 

 Soc. Vict., 1890-], vol. 2, pi. 11, fig. 1. With these I place specimens collected in 

 Gippsland (Toongabbie, Brutheu, Eureka Hill, Tinker Creek), by A. W. Ilowitt. A 

 figure of one of Jilr. llowitt's natural seedlings has just been alluded to, and fig. 1 of 

 the same plate, considered by Mr. Howitt to be E. piperita, is the same form. 



Such specimens as those (and other instances have been referred to by me) 

 show that there arc intermediate stages between E. eugenioides and E. capitellata, 

 and that the evidence of seedlings, at one time believed to be infallible, breaks down. 

 At the same time, juvenile foliage (whether of seedlings or suckers) is most valuable. 

 Yet here we have additional evidence pointing to the conclusion that every character 

 in Eucaly])ius is unstable. 



E 



