283 



DESCRIPTION. 



XXVIII. E. virgata Sieber. 



In Sprengel's Cur- Post, 195 (1827). 



The original description and the Prodromus amplification are set out at Part IX, p. 275, 

 of the present work. 



G. Don (" Dichlamydeous Plants," ii, 818) translated the original description as 

 follows : — 



E. virgata (Sieb. pi. exsicc. nov. holl. No. 467), lid of calyx conical, length of the cupula (calyx- 

 tube) ; peduncles axillary and lateral, hardly longer than the petioles, and are 2-edged, as well as the 

 padicels ; leaves oblong-linear, acuminated at both ends, thickish, coriaceous and nearly veinless. Native 

 of New Holland. Leaves 4-6 inches long and about 6-9 lines broad. Twiggy Eucalyptus Tree. 



Then Bentham, in B.F1. iii, 202 (1866), compiled a new description of E. virgata, 

 speaking of it as " A tree of considerable size, with a furrowed persistent fibrous bark." 

 (Oldfield). He also, inter alia, adds a description of the fruit for the first time, " Narrow 

 pear-shaped," with other details of the fruit. (Sieber did not collect the fruit.) 



Let us now examine the material he attributed to E. virgata. I find that it 

 consists of three species, viz. : — 



1. Sieber's No. 467, which, says Bentham, came from " Port Jackson or Blue 

 Mountains." This is E. virgata Sieb., and it came from Port Jackson or its vicinity. 



2. The remainder of the New South Wales specimens quoted by him, and also 

 the Victorian ones from Sealer's Cove (the collector should be Walter, and not Walters). 

 These all belong to E. Sieberiana F.v.M., one of the trees called Mountain Ash. 



3. The South Australian specimens, which are E. vitrea B. T. Baker. 



In Spicer's "Handbook of the Plants of Tasmania," p. 149 (1878), we have 

 " Eucalyptus sp., Ironbark, George's Bay. (Perhaps identical with E. virgata Sieb.)," 

 an erroneous supposition. 



Then Mueller (" Eucalyptographia," Decade 2, 1880) describes his E. Sieberiana 

 to include Spicer's plant, and gives E. virgata as a synonym. Like Bentham he includes 

 three species, and the same three, for his Lake Bonney and other South Australian, 

 species are E. vitrea, while he takes the " Yowut " or Mountain Ash as his type. 



