314 A. A. HAMILTON. 



at least as the Woronora at Heathcote, E. buxifolius is 

 replaced inland by its narrower leaved congener, E. scaber 

 Paxt. The latter reaches Liverpool via George's River r 

 spreading west towards the Nepean, and extending to the 

 foothills of the southern highlands and the Blue Mountains, 

 whose ascent it is unable to accomplish. The geographical 

 sequence is continued by the varifoliate E. hispidulus 

 Paxt., and maintained on the southern highlands to an 

 altitude of approximately 2,000 feet at Hilltop, and on the 

 Blue Mountains to Lawson, 2,400 leet. 



From, the boundary of this species, westwards to the 

 highest elevation on the Blue Mountains, the sub-alpine 

 E. obovalis A. Ounn., represents this closely allied group, 

 whose limits, though not strictly defined, are sufficiently 

 well marked ecological regions, viz., the exposed shoreline; 

 the sheltered equable basin between the coast and foothills; 

 the comparatively mild conditions obtaining on the lower 

 slopes of the Blue Mountains; and the bleak, storm-swept, 

 sub-alpine area. Notes appended to the descriptions of 

 these Eriostemons by Bentham, 1 disclose a difference of 

 opinion between the author and Baron von Mueller, on the 

 relative specific values oi E. hispidulus Sieb., and E. scaber 

 Paxt. Bentham also suggests that E. buxifolius Sm., is 

 merged into E. obovalis A. Ounn. 



These four forms are differentiated chiefly on foliar 

 characters, and may well be considered as species in the 

 making, the variation shown in a series of examples of E. 

 hispidulus, exhibited before the Linnean Society, 2 showing 

 a degree of divergence equal to that which distinguishes 

 any member of the group from its allies. The following 

 five species are found on the rocky hillside rising from the 

 headland, and are endemic in New South Wales. Grevillea 



1 PI. Austr. i, pp. 333, 334. 

 2 Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, p. 415, 1915. 



