151 



DESCRIPTION. 



CXLIV. E. neglect a Maiden. 



In Victorian Naturalist xxi, 114 (1904). 



A tree of small size. 



Bark. — " The bark is that of E. Gunnii " (A. W. Howitt, in litt.) — i.e., smooth and ribbony. 



Juvenile Foliage. — Ovoid or oval, cordate at the base, and stem-clasping (sessile); pale green, 

 cf the same colour on both sides. I have leaves of this kind § and 1 J inches broad. The leaves may remain 

 sessile and of the same shape for a considerable period — i.e., until they attain the texture of mature leaves 

 and a diameter of nearly 3 inches. 



Mature Foliage. — In dried specimens of a greasy lustre, broadly lanceolate to nearly orbicular. 

 Sessile to petiolate, with a petiole of an inch or more. Base of leaf tapering into the petiole or cordate. 

 Apex of leaf rounded or tapering to a blunt or even a sharp point. Margin often more or less crenulate, 

 particularly in young leaves. Midrib very prominent, the lateral veins distant and roughly parallel, and 

 making an angle of about 45 degrees with the midrib. Twigs round to nearly quadrangular. 



Buds. — Blunt, almost ovoid, and small ; operculum tending to be slightly conical ; glaucous. 



Fruits. — Nearly hemispherical, small, say ^-ihch ^ n diameter, rim prominent, tips of valves rather 

 well exserted, valves four in my specimens. Fruits sessile on a short strap-shaped common peduncle, 

 from three to eight or nine in a head, in the axils of the leaves. 



RANGE. 



Confined to Victoria, so far as we know at present. It grows in swampy places 

 in the upper parts of Livingstone Creek, near the Great Dividing Range, about 20 miles 

 up the stream from Livingstone, usually called Omeo (A. W. Howitt, who collected the 

 specimens, and from whom I received them). 



It is the " Dwarf Highland form (d)," of E. Gunnii, according to Howitt, in the 

 following passage :— 



I have observed this form of E. Gunnii growing extensively in the swampy flats at the source of 

 the main branch of the Livingstone Creek, at an elevation of about 3,000 feet. 



The description given of the dwarf lowland form applies in many respects to this also. It does 

 not exceed 20 feet in height ; the bark is smooth, persistent at the butt, and smooth and greenish on the 

 branches. The leaves are ovate, and at first opposed and sessile, or nearly so, finally scattered, of a dull 

 green. The umbels are axillary, or solitary, of sessile crowded buds. Fruit, semi-ovate rim, rather broad 

 and slightly convex, the valves barely exserted. The young twigs and umbels are all slightly niealv. 

 This form, however, differs from the corresponding lowland one in the leaves being shorter and broader 

 when they become scattered, in the darker green of the foliage, and the smaller size and mealy character 

 of the buds. The fruit also is of a smaller size. (Howitt, Trans. Roy. Soc. Vict, ii, 102, 1890.) 



