2S1 



Erroneously a^SLiming that tlie name E. virgata is " veiy misleading, because 

 only under very exceptional circumstances (lie ha'-, as ' exceptional circumstances,' 

 probably the South Australian specimens in his mind's eye) is this usually tall timber 

 tree reduced to a virgate and twiggy state," he took the high-handed step, not 

 unfamiliar to him, of suppressing one properly constituted botanical name and 

 substituting another. 



He subsequently, however, considered E. virgata to be a synonym of E. striata 

 Sieb., which is not in accordance with fact. See Decade 10, " Eucalyptogiaphia " 

 (1884). E. virgata as a specific name was, however, ignored by Mueller until the 

 publication of the Second Census in 1889, in which also E. stricta appears. 



If we again turn to Decade 10, we find under E. stricta, both E. virgata and 

 E. Luehmanniana F.v.M. appearing as synonyms of E. stricta, in the second page of the 

 text, " the variety Luehmanniana " of E. stricta being referred to in the following passage, 

 " But the real E. virgata does undergo a development in another direction, enlarging 

 to that startling state which was distinguished as E. Luehmanniana." 



In other words, Mueller suppressed E. virgata twice, placing it under E. Sieberiana 

 and under E. stricta. But lie brings it forward again in his Second Census, giving only 

 the reference Fragm. xi, 38, which was earlier than that of the " Eucalyptogiaphia, " 

 Decade 10, which is the last known comment by him on the synonym. 



His E. Sieberiana is accepted (as a new combination) because we selectively 

 choose the Mountain Ash as the type. Mueller makes precisely the same number of 

 mistakes as Bentham did. but the latter employed the name E. virgata, which we must 

 read sensu stricta. 



Turning to my remarks on the range of E. virgata in Part IX, p. 281, the notes 

 on the three trees may be supplemented as follows. Including the previous specimens 

 1 have now perfect suites of all three. 



(a), (b) and (c). Messrs. W. F. Blakely and J. L. Boorman visited the spot on 

 24th August, 1918, and matched the following from the same clumps of plants. Mr. 

 Blakely's words arc "Mallee-like shrubs, or sometimes reduced to two stems. Ten to 

 twenty feet high.. Timber very hard. Branches almost slate blue; occasionally 

 mottled brown. Young tips conspicuously bright yellow against the glaucous green 

 of the adult foliage." 



I again refer to these Spit (Poit Jackson) plants at Park IX, 287, under 

 E, Luehmannicma, and at Plate 41, figs. 6h, 6k, and at p. 290 again refer to the affinity 

 of E. virgata and E. Luehmanniana. My additional investigation of these Spit plants 

 has shown that these specimens, attributed to E. virgata, are conspecific with 

 E. Luehnrinuiana. My interpretation of E. virgata in this work was not wrong; it 

 was too narrow, and should have been extended to include E. Luehmanniana . 



