46 



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AFFINITIES. 



This species has been arrived at by an application of the ordinary process of 

 exhaustion employed in " running down " a species. The problem originally before one 

 was to deal with an enormous amount of " tereticornis " material, and after weeding 

 out certain species deemed to be valid by other botanists and myself, there remained a 

 residuum which could not be properly placed (as I considered) in any of them. This 

 residuum, collected from a very wide area, exhibits a form which seems to me sufficiently 

 definite and useful, but one requires to do more collecting, and possibly to reject some 

 of the specimens (especially some of the imperfect ones) quoted, before the species can 

 be looked upon as the finished article— if there ever is one such, particularly in this 

 protean genus. 



It belongs to the E. tereticornis group, and to that section of it with broad juvenile 

 leaves. 



1. With E. tereticornis Sm. 



It differs in its thicker foliage, both juvenile and adult ; particularly the former, 

 in the smaller, and more pear-shaped (clavate) fruits, in'the thinner texture of the fruits, 

 and in the smaller and narrower buds. 



The foliage of E. Blakelyi is much thicker than that of E. tereticornis, and is of a 

 glossy olive green, the young branches are also more highly coloured than those of E. 

 tereticornis— & matter of environment. 



E. Blakelyi is a medium sized tree, usually much smaller than E. tereticornis, and, 

 in its typical form, with drooping branches almost to the ground, and in habit resembling 

 more closely E. melliodora A. Cunn., than E. tereticornis, which is more erect. The 

 bark is more mealy and mottled, and rarely smooth or clean stemmed as E. tereticornis. 



2. With E. amplifolia Naudin. 



The juvenile leaves of E. amplifolia are coarser, less petiolate, less gradually 

 contracted towards the petiole. The flowers of E. amplifolia are more than twice as 

 numerous in the umbel. 



The buds of E. amplifolia are more stellate in appearance, are of less diameter, 

 more falcate, and the rims, marking the deciduous character of a second operculum on 

 each bud, more accentuated. 



3. With E. dealbata A. Cunn. 



Some forms of E. dealbata lose their glaucousness and may turn olive green in 

 colour as does often the foliage of E. Blakelyi, but the leaves of E. dealbata are more 

 rigid and usually much smaller. 



The operculum of E. dealbata is conical and almost invariably shorter than that 

 of E. Blakelyi. The latter never flowers in the juvenile-foliage state. 



