36 



Bucalyptus punctata, DO. 



A Geey Gum. 



Botanical Name. — Punctata, Latin (dottfed). In the original description 



it is stated, " Dots on the under surface of the leaves blackish." These 



blackish dots are almost invariably present; often the aid of a lens is 



, required to see them properly. They are, however, not characteristic for 



punctata, being often present in E. resinifera and other species. 



Vernacular Names. — " Grey Gum " or " Leather Jacket." Botanists are 



■often blamed for not giving one common name, and one name only, to one 



..particular species of Eucaljrptus, and when it is suggested that there are 



' difficulties in the way, such a suggestion is attributed to perverseness. I 



am afraid the milleiiium will have arrived before the reform hinted at can be 



, carried out. The present species is a good one for illustrating one of the 



reasons why the " one species one common name " dictum cannot be realised. 



' More than one other species is known as Grey Gum, for example, E. 



propinqua and E. tereticornis. Then why another Grey Gum? Suppose 



we call E. teriticornis Red Gum (a name by which it is frequently known) 



' ilistead of Grey Gum; then there will be more or less confusion between it 



■ and its brother, E. rostrata, the Red Gum par excellence. Or, to come baek 



to the subject of our present Grey Gum, suppose we suppress Grey Gum, 



rjiaving assigned that designation to E. propinqua. then there remains the 



next best and most used name for it, which is Leather- jacket. But consider 



4;he, number . of other trees which have a vested interest in the name oi 



"Leather-jacket, which have indeed more claim to the name, because of 



greater appropriateness and use by a larger number of people, and we at 



once' see that if we appropriate the name for E. punctata we shall be as far 



off our " one species one name " as ever. The fact of the matter is, that so 



' long as people are so obstinate as to please themselves in the matter of 



names, and so long as the same object presented to different individuals Is 



< Been by them in different aspects, so long will this name difficulty continue. 



The Grey Gum people will not give up their name simply to please the Red 



. Gum people, and so on. The former say : " Our name is the more suitable ; 



we look at the bark — see how grey it is." The latter say : " But look how 



red the timber is." It is of no use to blow up the botanist. He does not 



give the local names. The people at large do that, and who can control 



them? The chief reason why we give "botanical names" is in order to 



obtain a definiteness not obtained by vernaculars. Some of our species 



have at least eight or ten common names. 



The term Grey Gum is applied to punctata because of the dull grey 

 appearance of the bark. The bark has a roughish appearance, in contradis- 

 tinction to a smooth and even shiny one, possessed by so many of our gums. 

 It has smooth, white patches in places, caused by the outer layer of bark 

 falling off. These white patches in their turn become grey, and the process 

 of exfoliation of the bark is repeated until probably the whole of the bark 

 on the trunk is shed at one time or another. Although rather difficult to 

 properly describe, the bark of the Grey Gum is so characteristic that, when 

 once pointed out, it could not be confused with the bark of any other hard- 

 wood tree. 



It is called " Black Box " at Oapertee, owing to the darkness of the bark, 

 and Mr. Forester Sim, of the same place, says it is also called " Slaty Gum." 

 The smooth bark is sometimes of a yellow ochre or pale brown colour, hence 

 it might then be appropriately called " Brown-barked Gum." 



