62 



Woolls, 1867. — The late Rev. Dr. Woolls refers to the subject : — 



Even in the Grey Gum or Hybrid Box (E. tereticomis), which appears more subject to variation 

 t>han any Gum. in New South Wales, there is sufficient uniformity in the seed-vessel to mark the species. 

 The leaves are subject to great diversity. . . . It is in this Gum that workmen speak so much of 

 hybridisation, as they imagine that the flowers of the Grey Gum are sometimes inocidated by the pollen 

 of the Box, so that an intermediate variety springs up. . . . My own impression is that the 

 varieties of the Grey Gum, to whatever causes they may be due, are not transmissible from generation 

 to generation, and that they do not extend beyond the individuals so circumstanced; whilst I regard 

 one of the kinds at least which workmen consider hybrid as a true species, for it has a uniform seed-vessel 

 of its own, and prevails to too great an extent to admit of the supposition that it is the result of 

 fortuitous impregnation. (" A Contribution to the Flora of Australia," pp. 219-20.) 



The above remarks were published in 1867, and as the author died in 1893 it is 

 obviously unfair to quote him as a non-believer in hybridisation in Eucalyptus. I do 

 not, however, know any published statement of his in which he expressed different 

 views, and at least up to within a few years of his death he leaned to his views of 1867. 

 (Maiden in Report Aust. Assoc. Adv. Science, 1904, p. 298.) In future this reference 

 will be given as Maiden, 1904. 



The following passage : "If nature does not admit of crossing in the genus 

 Eucalyptus . . ." (Woolls in Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., xvi, 61, 1891), shows that 

 he remained in doubt on the general question of hybridism in the genus. 



Mueller, 1880-1890. — Mueller always seemed to fight shy of the question, both 

 in conversation and in his writings. Here follow two observations from his pen : — 



Also in the particular series of Eucalyptus species to which E. Foelschiana belongs, some forms 

 occur, the originals of which may possibly be traceable to hybridism, notwithstanding that in this genus 

 the contact of the anthers with the stigma commences already, while stamens and pistils are still 

 covered by the lid, &c. (" Eucalyptographia," under E. Foelschiana.) 



Again : — 



On the summit of Mount Wellington I collected a state of E uruitjera, with all leaves nearly oval 

 and with simply truncate-ovate fruits. Hybridism does not seem to explain the origin of these aberrant 

 forms in a genus, where cross fertilisation is guarded against by a calycine lid, though, as pointed out by 

 Mr. W. Sh. Macleay, the possibility of such a process is thereby not absolutely excluded, as parrots, &c 

 ("Eucalyptographia" under E. cordala.) (Maiden, 1904, p. 299.) 



This reference to Mr. W. S. Macleay probably originated with Rev. Dr. Woolls, 

 see below, p. 63. 



Mueller published, without comment, in 1889, a statement that Mr. W. Baeuerlen 

 had sent from near the Clyde, New South Wales, " Specimens of an Eucalypt which he 

 considers a hybrid between E. corymbosa and E. maculata, in which case the character- 

 istics of the former are prevailing." He then goes on to describe some of the points in 

 which the specimens in question partake of the character of the two species referred to. 

 "Mr. Baeuerlen was then, as now, Collector for the Technological Museum at Sydney 

 the botanical collections of which were founded by me. It is only proper to say that 

 Mr. Baeuerlen was, during the period that he served under me, a consistent advocate 

 for recognition of the principle of hybridism in Eucalypts. In taking up the position 

 I do now, of freely recognising the principle, I bear testimony to the fact that 



