174 Frederick Clatpvian : 



Upon submitting niicropliotographs of the wood to Mr. R. T. 

 Baker, of the Sydney Technological Museum, who is a recognised 

 authority on this subject, 1 have received the following interesting 

 notes : — • 



** The weathered surface rather favours a coarse-grained timber, 

 but such is not brouglit out in the other three. Your placing ii 

 near E .nielli odora is a very good one, although the walls of the 

 pores are much thinner than my specimens, otherwise I think it 

 will do. In tangential section the rays are rather too small for 

 that species than in my sections, but the radial is satisfactory. The 

 other nearest Eucalypt is E.albens.'' 



The Eucalypt, E .alheiis x^iQi'vedi to is the White Box, sometimes 

 regarded as a variety of E .hemiphloia ; but as already pointed out, 

 the pores are much denser in E .hemiphloia., and its rays are 

 smaller and more finely cellular. 



From the above comparison 1 think one is justified in placing 

 specimen A nearest E .melliodora, but evidently an ancestral form 

 of that species. During the time elapsing between the Upper 

 Miocene or Lower Pliocene and the present (at a low estimate of 

 about one and a-half to two million years), there was ample oppor- 

 tunity for a species like that of the genus Eucalyptus to vary. 

 This is not a bold assumption, seeing that within the scope of very 

 modern physiographic changes, variations in the genus have 

 undoubtedly happened. 



Specimen B. Euealypfus sp. aff. piperita, Smith. 



This specimen of fossil wood is of an entirely different character 

 oi Eucalypt to the. preceding. It was obtained from the same gravel 

 beds, but at Baker's Bight, Mallacoota Inlet, by Mr. P. H. Bond, 

 Avho presented it to the Museum. The specimen measures about 

 31 cm. X 5 cm. x 5 cm. It is similarly silicified, though not so 

 •completely, and shoAvs the burroAvs of a longicorn beetle traversing 

 part of the wood; this burrow is about G mm, in diameter, and 

 resembles those commonly found in such Avood at the present time. 



From a comparison of the wood structure this specimen comes 

 nearest to E. piperita (White Stringy Bark). The radial section 

 shoAvs the same characters in having the compressed cells of the 

 rays in perfectly straight series and of the same dimensions ; AA^iile 

 the marked fissile character of the liber cells is more like that 

 species than E .ohliqua. Tlie latter species, moreover, has larger 

 radial tubes, and the pitted structure of the Avails of the vertical 

 •ducts or pores is more conspicuous. 



