294 



Messrs. Baker and Smith (" Research on the Eucalypts," p. 182, 1902) say, 

 " Messrs. Deane and Maiden record this as the mountain form of what they regard as 

 E. virgata Sieb. (E. Luehmanniana), a ' Mallee ' of the coast, but our researches fail to 

 show any connection whatever between these two trees, either in herbarium material, 

 timber or field observations. . . . The tree thought to be this species in Tasmania 

 is E. Risdoni Hook, f., the mature fruits of the two being somewhat alike." 



I have not seen this statement modified, and it has doubtless arisen, in part, 

 from Mr. Baker's figure of E. oreades, which depicts the uncharacteristic unripe fruit 

 and the not characteristic intermediate leaf. 



" It is simply a giant form of E. Luehmanniana (virgata), exhibiting that species 

 in its best development. The mountains form is sometimes known as ' Yellow Gum,' 

 and ' White Gum' 1 '' (Maiden in " Forest Flora," Part xxvi, p. 104). An experience 

 of twenty-three years since I collected this species (as E. Luehmanniana var. altior) 

 confirms the opinion I formed then. At the same time, I know few species in which 

 there is so much difference between the shape of the ripe and of the unripe fruit, which 

 therefore presents a pitfall to the botanist. Indeed, the type specimens are so far 

 removed from the type specimens of virgata var. altior that they have deceived 

 Mr. Baker himself. Mr. Baker's type specimen of E. oreades has been looked upon 

 superficially as a starved specimen of E. obliqua many times, but no one could so 

 mistake the type specimen of virgata (Luehmanniana) var. altior. The angularity and 

 glaucousness of the branchlets also proclaim its affinity to virgata. 



See also p. 297 (under E. obtusiflora). 



