tasnat 1907 vol1 no3 pp9-11 rodway taseucalyptus

7/30/2019 TasNat 1907 Vol1 No3 Pp9-11 Rodway TasEucalyptus

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THE TASMANIAN NATURALIST.In Soui'h A-f.ic,l. it occurs on manvmountains at a considerable altitudoe. 1;1the no.rth i t has a v>erv wide ran"e fromthe Arctic regiollsS:outh, Ibu't e whereit spreads to ,w',',mner P'11'ts it re tre,,'ts 'to the mountain top ;, wherei t is f O l l l l l ~ as far ' south ag C}lexico,W'e,st lndi'e,s, Abyssini;l, and the Rimalaya,s. On the Himalayas i t ascends to,an altitud,e of 16,000 f'eet. I t is a 'small,clelicaite plant, finding it., home fOI' prefel1ence in the crevice.,'of rocks. Of atuned ha,hit, it makes a pt'etty little

~ r e e n h ( ) U I : ~ ' e fern. T.he le:a.ves vary considerably in shape, and many s p e ~ L , s orva,rietie.:-;, il-cC'onlillg' t.o the bia,g -of student.s. h,,,'c hcen madp of it . Tb", leaves,.;emO'.n1 rea!ch ,,'ix il1!cheBin length, andare divided into primary and usuallySconda.ry pinna.e, the ultimate divi'sion,s:OC'ing' bonl'el'ed by 10!J.e.g or /lcute teeth.'J.1hespol'angia are of the tl'Lle polypodiaceous type, namely, s-tal'k,ed with a welldoaveJoped vertical annulus. T h ~ spo.c-an:gia. a l ' ~ arramged in littLe round 80rion .the back o'r the ultimate ,.egmentsnt ~ o m p tli8talh'P from the 'margin,and: arisp 'fi'om t,hoe end of nlolteral ",pin. Iu the youllIg sta'tefhe .-;orus is JlTot,ect.ed ohy n delicatemembra,ne 01' indllsium that arisp.s b.elowit, and for same time appe,aos a,s a cupO'r concave OO'Vft ope,ning abov'e. Asthe sorus m a t u r e . ~ that membrane is bent'hack, and is (lommonly compll'tely hidden. The sporangia Hri,slC 'With theindn.,ium from t.h-e sur:f:lce lavm' of t.heleaf, but as development p T o ~ e e ( l s theyare borne on to the hase oof the indusiumitself, and appeal' M ll,ullciJ.edto thatorg'llu inst-esd of to tlbeteaf. This iN il11-podant as ' a distingni;;ihing mark. dividin g CYNtopteri,s from DlVallia. The ap''Pearance of the young indusium ha;; gain

~ d for the plant the popular name ofBladdel' F ie l '11. 'CYTOPTEHIS FRAGILTS BERN.

Notes on a 'l9asmanian eucalyptus.(e. gunnii of J. ~ . :XooRer.)

BY L. RODWAY (Government Botanist).

In the year 1844 Sir ,Toseph Hookerdescrihp.d in the "London ,Tournal of'Botany" a eucalypt, and named i t "Eucalyptus gunnii." In his grea.t work,' ' 'Flora Ta.smaniae," puhlished ahout the'same time, also appears a description of:the tree, accompanied with a very re-

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liahle plate. The plant descrihed wasfrom Tasmanian material, and accuratelyrepresents the tree so common in someparts of our Midlands, from Mount Fieldto Ironstone Range, and known iocallyas the cider gum. Like most othereucalypts, the tree varies, and i t is a


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THE TA SMAN IA!'; NATURALIST,

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THE TASMANIAN NATURAlIST.matter of individual opinion haw ftlr thename shall cover varieties, and whereanother name shall be used. Hotanistsha ve long given up the idea of immutah!lit,v, and recognise that exceptin fa voured cases 'U specific namei" only a convenient but arbitrary appellation for a poorly circumscribed group of varying forms. Biologists, in order to avoid confusion, de-cribe a particular being under a ~ e r t a i nname. That form, whether well or illchosen, becomes for all time the typebearing t.hat name, and all related formsare compared with it. The elder gumoil' ll'aSlmaniRhs ,tlhe itylpe I f o ~ m of '"Jjhl'cal-yptus gunnii" of Hooker. Any personswho endeavour tu shift this .uuk com-mit an offence against the laws of botanical nomenclature, They not only ro bthe first person of his little bit of sponsorial conceit, but raise up confusion inth e work to be done by subsequent students. Ther" has been no botanist sogreat that by his ipse dixit he could,with certainty, change a name. Von

~ f u e l l e r , great as he was, failed IJ l mostinstances where he tried it_ He triedi t in 1&30 with Hooker's "Eucalyptusgunnii," only to bear the unfortunate re-sult that to-day few Australian botanistsrefer to th e same form when they ust'the name, aud men, when they sendorder" t o . ~ u s ~ t r a l j ' , L :for seed: OIf "IE'U'0aly:p-

tUB gunnii" sometimes get what theywant, but they generally do not. Thetypical tree has a smooth, white bark;alternate, sblked, oblong, equal-sidedleaves of rather thick texture, seldom ornever pointed. Flowers are small, shortlystalked, and three together in axillaryu)llbels. 'rhe operculum varies fromshortly hemispheritl to nearly conical.'rhe fruit is small oblong to hemispheric,about two to three lines diameter, witha thin rim, and sunk capsule. EvenHooker was guilty of an error. We havea tree common on lowlands closely related to cider gum. I t has somewhatdifferent bark and leaves, more fiowersin the umbel, different fruit, all different in degree, but not essentially.Hooker described this as "Eucalyptusacervuhj, of' fSleber, which it certainlyi,s no't. 'Muelle'r, Tefcognis,ing ".le errorHooker had made tried to remedy it bymaking a worse one. He suppressed thename "acervula," and adopted the plantgO described as the type form of "eucalyptus gunnii" Hooker. I t appears assuch in his "Eucalyptographia," with a.little bit of the original form appearingas an interesting variety. The platewhich appears in this number is a photograph of a sprig of the type plant. I tis not a very good spedmen, but was th e!les't lLntilahle. The ,piece with I)J'oad.pale

' l e l l n " ~ is t 1w jlH'PlI'ile e(1'n'.lit-ion of the piant

exeursions.On :-;atmday, Odober 5, the first ex-cursion of the session was held, th e ob-ject of study being botany, and theleader 'sfI', [.. :Roaway, Iwho 'took theparty to Bellerive and thence along theRokeby-roatl. After walking about amile a large lowlying piece of groundwas met with, and here were foundmany fiourishing shrubs, and in spring i tlooks' quite gay wi,th the f,ollowingplants: -Saeckia diffusa, Aotis villo.sa,Pimelia Iinifolia, Leucopogon ericoides,Epacris impress'U, several acacias, and

many other kinds. Club moss was alsofound growing freely.

in the bird line was a large nest in aeucalypt, which was probably that of a.g08-hawk, as this bird. was seen fiying.high overhead with something in itsclaw. \Vedge-tajled eagles had a nestnear the summit of this mountain formany years, and the Stewarts, of RisdonFerry, have said they had been there for30 years. Young birds were reared forthe last time in 1J.006. The tree theybuilt ,in was an exceedingly hard one to,climb, and few, if any, ever reached thenest. The tree blew down in July orAugust of this year, and scat,tered ,thenest amongst the scrub.

A geologica:J excursion to Sandy Baywas held ori November 16, with Dr. F.~ o e t l i n g as leader. The Cliffs on theroadside were first examined, and a clearaccount of their formation was given by,the leader. CoUectors obtained fossils'pecimens of leaf impressions, e,tc., fromthe sedimentary deposits here. A visitwas also paid to One Tree Point, wherethe strata of volcanic and sedimentart

tasnat 1907 vol1 no3 pp9-11 rodway taseucalyptus

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