122 



AFFINITIES. 



1. With E. Oldfieldii F.v.M. 



There has been great confusion between E. Oldfieldii and E. Drummondii, and 

 the present species, like E. Lane-Poolei, has been carved out of the aggregate. 

 The affinity of E. Lane-Poolei inclines to E. Drummondii, and so does the present 

 species in general characters, but both E. Ewartiana and E. Oldfieldii are dry- 

 country Mallees. Mueller and Tate looked upon the Elder Expedition specimens as 

 a mountain form of E. Oldfieldii. Both species have fruits with broad rims, though the 

 sculpture is not the. same in both. The fruits of E. Ewartiana are smaller, more numerous, 

 have long peduncles, and are distinctly pedicellate. The operculum is very different 

 to that of E. Oldfieldii ; it is hemispherical, and shows a contraction with the calyx-tube 

 which is not observable in E. Oldfieldii. The two species also differ in other characters. 



2. With E. Drummondii Benth. 



Compare fig. 11, Plate 74 (E. Ewartiana), with figs. 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 of the same 

 Plate {E. Drummondii). The buds of E. Drummondii are more ovoid than those of 

 E. Ewartiana ; the former have much longer and slenderer pedicels. The shape of the 

 fruit is different in the two species, that of E. Drummondii having a more convex rim, 

 with the tips of the valves more exsert. The mature leaves of E. Drummondii are 

 usually more or less ovate-lanceolate, a character not observed in those of E. Ewartiana. 

 The juvenile leaves of E. Ewartiana are remarkably coriaceous, and so broadly lanceolate 

 as to be almost orbicular. 



3. With E. Lane-Poolei Maiden. 



E. Lane-Poolei is a moderately large White Gum, found in coastal situations; 

 E. Ewartiana is a Mallee frequenting regions of low rainfall. The foliage of the former 

 is thin, lanceolate to narrow lanceolate ; that of the latter much broader and thicker, 

 with the juvenile foliage remarkably coriaceous and so broad as to be almost orbicular, 

 and considerably larger than that of E. Lane-Poolei. While the texture of the 

 operculum of E. Ewartiana is thinnish, that of E. Lane-Poolei is remarkably thick, 

 while comparison of the figures on Plate 74, viz., 4 (E. Lane-Poolei) and 11 (E. Ewartiana) 

 shows that they are widely different, 



4. With E. aeeedens W. V. Fitzgerald. 



In the size, paleness and extreme coriaceousness, I know only one species whose 

 juvenile leaves resemble those of E. Ewartiana, and that is E. aeeedens. See fig. 8, 

 Plate 141, of the present work. But in almost every other character the two species 

 diverge. 



