73 
The relations of this species to C. glaucescens ancl C. microneura are shown 
by Mr. Baker and myself in Proc. Linn. Soc., N.S.TF., xx, 516 (1895). 
The confusion of this species with Litscea (Tetranthera ) reticulata is best 
explained by the following note, published by me in the Agric. Gazette (N.S.W.) 
for 1894. 
“ Under the name of scaly or yellow beech, Mr. Forester G. R. Brown, of 
Port Macquarie, sent (in 1894) flowering specimens of Litscea ( Tetranthera ) 
reticulata , Benth., which is an addition to the recorded plants of the Colony. 
Mr. Brown states that, like sassafras, the timber is used for lining-boards. 
“ Logs of this timber were shown by the late Sir William Macarthur at the 
Paris Exhibition of 1855. One log was numbered 24, and the following description 
given: —“ Cryptocarya obovata (the shapes of the leaves of Litscea reticulata and 
Cryptocarya obovata are not unlike, J.H.M.), beautiful small tree, wood tolerably 
close-grained but soft. Diameter, 18-30 inches. Height, 60-90 feet.” 
“The second log bore the number 192, and the following description:— 
“ Cryptocarya sp. ; aboriginal name Myndee, local name White Sycamore. A 
handsome tree (doubtful if not the same as No. 24), wood fine-grained and soft. 
Diameter, 12-54 inches. Height, 50-120 feet.” 
“Bentham, in the Flora Auslraliensis (v. 306), refers both these logs to 
Tetranthera ( Litscea ) reticulata , and he had Sir William Macarthur’s herbarium 
specimens before him. 
“ But in the Flora Auslraliensis the tree is referred to Queensland, Bentham 
remarking that the timbers above referred to probably came from Brisbane River 
(Queensland), whereas they came from Brisbane Water (New South Wales), 500 
miles to the south. Owing to this typographical, or geographical, error, the species 
has continued to be recorded only as a Queensland tree to this very day. Litscea 
belongs to the Laurel family ( Lauracece ).” 
Botanical Name. — Cryptocarya , from two Greek words, kryptos, hidden, 
and karya, a nut, owing to the nut being concealed in the enlarged calyx tube ; 
obovata , from the Latin ovatus, egg-shaped, or of an oval-figure, and ob, a Latin 
word indicating, in its botanical sense, a reversal, so that obovate means the reverse 
of ovate, e.g ., in the present case the leaves are reversely ovate, or broadest at the 
apex. 
Vernacular Name. —This tree is one of the timbers known as She-Beech. 
There are several of them, and the name is applied somewhat at random. In New 
South Wales it means that the timber resembles Native Beech ( Gmclina Leich- 
hardtii) somewhat, but that it is inferior in durability, colour, and other useful 
properties. It is occasionally known as Sycamore, a name very loosely employed in 
New South Wales. 
