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lanceolata. My personal difficulty is that I cannot always separate E. ovalifolia 
var. lanceolata from E. Daicsoni, in habit, bark, timber, foliage, or any other 
character available to me. 
A pitfall with some is the use of the term " Box " or " Red Box." It has a 
subjective meaning with many people in the bush. It ought to indicate some trees 
with sub-fibrous bark and inlocked timber, but the bushman sometimes only thinks 
of the inlocked timber, and forgets that the bark may be more or less flaky and 
may approximate to the entirely smooth. As a matter of fact the bark of typical 
polyanthemos (from a little north of Bathurst) is far less Box-like than polyanthemos 
from Victoria and the southern tableland of New South Wales, but they are all 
known as " Red Box," and in what part of Australia the term originated for 
polyantlicmos I do not know. 
"SLATI GUM." BATCH i (PROBABLY ALL THESE ARE E. polyanthemos}. 
" Slaty Gum " on ridges, Mudgee. " Smooth bark, good wood " ( W. "Woolls). 
Note by Dr. Woolls on another specimen : " Leaves vary, more lanceolate in the 
large trees. Slaty Gum, E. polyanthema" 
" Slaty Gum or Red Box," Lue, Mudgee Line. " Fine large trees, 40 to 60 
feet high, patchy or at times quite smooth, white with patches of grey bark ; this is 
more applicable to the large trees ; the smaller are of more of a scaly nature. The 
latter designated ' Red Box,' the larger ' Slaty ' or ' Spotted Gum ' " ( J. L. 
Boorman). 
" Slaty Gum," Rylstone. " Large tall trees, clean stems, bark falling away 
in long ribbons, leaving a clean white stem with patches of dark green, the tips of 
the branches of a mealy, powdery whiteness, sap timber pale yellow, centre red " 
(J. L. Boorman). " Gum tree bark," Rylstone (R. H. Cambage, No. 2722). 
" Red Box," Rylstone. "Trees not so large as those known as ' Slaty Gum,' 
and the bark is more scaly, but in wood and every other respect identical with 
' Slaty Gum' " (J. L. Boorman). 
"Red Box," typical for E. ooalifolia R. T. Baker, Rylstone (R. T. Baker). 
Labelled indifferently " Slaty Gum," " Red Gum," " Red Box," Capertee. " Some 
trees large and entirely smooth-barked ; others small and stunted, with a ribbony 
bark. A large tree which was felled showed narrow leaves at the top " (J.H.M. 
and J. L. Boorman). 
In 1905 Mr. Andrew Murphy, an experienced man, whose chief occupation 
is the collection of Eucalyptus seed, wrote to me : "Last week I went to Rylstone 
intending to get the Rylstone Slaty Gum, Eucalyptus Daicsoni. I could not see 
any difference between it and Eucalyptus polyanthema, and came to the conclusion 
that they are identical. As I have a supply of E. polyantJiema on hand, I did not 
collect more." 
The Rev. Dr. Woolls wrote me in 1891 : " The Slaty Gum is the same as Red 
Box. and has a splendid timber." 
