472 



Of upwards of 110 species now referred to, more than half the cotyledons come 

 within the section Reniformse, including both the large and small forms, while the re- 

 mainder are nearly equally divided between Bilobae and Bisectse. 



Several Australian botanists who have given close attention to the genus 

 Eucalyptus are inclined to the opinion that the Corymbosae group are among the oldest 

 jiving forms of the genus, and if this be so, it may be inferred that the Reniform cotyledon, 

 which includes the Corymbosae (Bloodwood) group, is the ancestral type, while the other 

 sections represent more specialised forms. 



There is an instructive paper on " The Evolution of the Eucalypts in Relation 

 to the Cotyledons and Seedlings " by Cuthbert Hall, M.D., Ch.M., in Proc. Linn. Soc. 

 N.S.W., XXXIX, 473, 1914. 



The representative figures of the cotyledons of the three divisions depicted on 

 Plates 286 and 287 show at a glance how they run into each other, but at the same time 

 they indicate a natural classification. They are described in detail in the Explanation 

 of Plates, p. 485, and need not be discussed here. 



There are, of course, figures of cotyledons with the plates of Coloured Seedlings 

 abeady referred to, but these are parts of wholes in which the colour-character of the 

 cotyledon is well brought out, and should be studied in conjuction with black and white 

 figures on Plates 286 and 287, which are somewhat more sharply defined. 



1. VERNACULAR NAMES. 



Perusal of the indexes will at once show how numerous they are. I have taken 

 the indexes of only the first five volumes, and have selected the most numerous vernaculars. 

 There is more or less duplication in the various indexes, but, as the numbers are, they 

 prove my point that there are many Bloodwoods, many Boxes, and so forth, all, or nearly 

 all, with prefixes. 



Bloodwood— 15 (Vol. 4), 7 (Vol. 5). 



Box— 14 (Vol. 1), 39 (Vol. 2), 9 (Vol. 3), 22 (Vol. 5). 



Gum— 38 (Vol. 1), 34 (Vol. 2), 46 (Vol. 3), 64 (Vol. 4), 30 (Vol. 5). 



Ironbark— 15 (Vol. 1), 21 (Vol. 2), 12 (Vol. 5). 



Mallee— 14 (Vol. 2), 17 (Vol. 4), 7 (Vol. 5). 



Mahogany— 8 (Vol. 3). 



Peppermint— 10 (Vol. 3). 



Stringybark— 15 (Vol. 1). 



Yate— 8 (Vol. 4). 



The person who complains (without qualification) of the confusion of common 

 names applied to Australian plants sometimes loses sight of the fact that Australia is as 

 large as Europe, and that even in Europe the application of vernacular names to plants 

 is often profuse and bewildering. The Briton, Greek, and Scandinavian have different 

 languages of course, but their plant names are (like those of Australians), of ten uncertain 

 and difficult of interchange. Our difficulties have arisen partly because the continent 

 only began to be settled rather more than a century and a third ago, and then by a 



