501 



urceolatc shape of the fruit (fig. 14d, Plate 80) is never present in the Whittingehatne 

 tree. Fig. 16, it may be pointed out, is much less urceolate, but this is quite 

 exceptional. The fruit of E. wmigera is also much larger than that of E. Gunnii or 

 of the Whittingehame tree. 



The correspondence in the Gardeners' Chronicle already referred to was continued 

 in the issue of 19th May, 1888, p. 628, by Mr. John Garrett, the gardener at Whittinge- 

 hame. He gives the then height as 63 feet, with girth of trunk 10 feet. In 1860 it 

 was sawn over at a height of 9 feet and was believed to be dead for over a year, and 

 in starting to root it out a young shoot (the present tree) was observed. He goes on 

 to say : — 



: ' Whatever may be the true name of the tree, I think Dr. Landsborough right in saying it is not 

 urnigera — at least a young plant of that variety (species) we have here bears no resemblance to a plant of 

 the same age, raised from our own tree, the leaves of the former being quite green, and of the latter 

 glaucous, as well as being both shorter and rounder." 



There is a further note in the Gardeners' Chronicle of 14th January, 1899, p. 19. 



In Part XVIII. p. 262, I provisionally adopted the very pardonable error of 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle that the Whittingehame tree is E. urnigera, but I had very 

 poor material at the time. 



Dr. A. W. Hill. F.E.S., Director of Kew, gives me the further references of — 



(a) Landsborough, in Trans. Boi. Soc. Edin., xx, 516 (1896), and 



(b) Elwes and Henry, " Trees of Great Britain," vol. vi., p. 1642, with Plates 



363 and 365. 



The slight difference from the type (in my view readily explained by the change 

 m environment) has been got over by some observers by suggesting that the 

 Whittingehame tree is a hybrid. In a recent letter to Kew, Lady Alice Balfour, who 

 is well acquainted with the history and botanical opinions concerning this interesting 

 tree, makes the shrewd observation that, " It seems most unlikely that Lord Salisbury 

 should have happened to have hit on the seed of a natural hybrid." I think that is 

 the correct view to take. The Whittingehame tree is especially resistant to cold. 



AFFINITY. 



1. With E. urnigera Hook. f. 



The relations of E. Gunnii and E. urnigera are obscure to the extent that 

 E. urnigera is a " strong," i.e., somewhat botanically isolated species. Compare 

 Plate 80 (urnigera) with 108 and 109 (Gunnii). The juvenile leaves of E. Gunnii are 

 comparatively small, more glaucous, with the rachis more glandular; the mature 

 leaves are more glaucous and much shorter; the buds have the calyx-tubes less 

 markedly urceolate and the opercula less pileiform; the fruits are with much shorter 

 peduncles, are smaller, hemispherical to cylindroid rather than urceolate, the rim not 

 prominent and recurved as in E. urnigera. The two species are White Gums. E. Gunnii 

 is the larger tree, more glaucous, and, in tree form, ascends to higher elevations, and 

 therefore is more accustomed to severe cold than E. urnigera. 



