THE TASMANIAN NATURALIST.

In Soui'h A-f.ic,l. it occurs on manv

mountains at a considerable altitudoe. 1;1
the no.rth it has a v>erv wide ran"e from
the Arctic regiollsS:outh, Ibu't e where
it spreads to ,w',',mner P'11'ts it re-
tre,,'ts 'to the mountain top . .;, where
it is as far'south ag C}lexico,
W'e,st lndi'e,s, Abyssini;l, and the Rima-
laya,s. On the Himalayas it ascends to
,an altitud,e of 16,000 f'eet. It is a 'small,
clelicaite plant, finding it., home fOI' pre-
fel1ence in the crevice.,' of rocks. Of a
tuned ha,hit, it makes a pt'etty little
fern. T.he le:a.ves vary con
siderably in shape, and many or
va,rietie.:-;, il-cC'onlillg' t.o the bia,g -of stu
dent.s. h,,,'c hcen madp of it. Tb", leaves
,.;emO'.n1 rea!ch ,,'ix il1!cheBin length, and
are divided into primary and usually
Sconda.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 polypodia-
ceous type, namely, s-tal'k,ed with a well-
doaveJoped vertical annulus. spo-
.c-an:gia. arramged in littLe round 80ri
on .the back o'r the ultimate ,.egments
nt tli8talh'P from the 'margin,
and: arisp 'fi'om t,hoe end of n
lolteral ",pin. Iu the youllIg sta'te
fhe .-;orus is JlTot,ect.ed ohy n delicate
membra,ne 01' indllsium that arisp.s b.elow
it, and for same time appe,aos a,s a cup
O'r concave OO'Vft ope,ning abov'e. As
the sorus that membrane is bent
'hack, and is (lommonly compll'tely hid-
den. The sporangia Hri,slC 'With the
indn.,ium from t.h-e sur:f:lce lavm' of t.he
leaf, but as development they
are borne on to the hase oof the indusium
itself, and appeal' M ll,ullciJ.edto that
org'llu inst-esd of to tlbeteaf. This iN il11-
podant as' a distingni;;ihing mark. divid-
ing CYNtopteri,s from DlVallia. The ap-
''Pearance of the young indusium ha;; gain-
for the plant the popular name of
Bladdel' F
i
el'11.'
CYTOPTEHIS FRAGILTS BERN.
Notes on a 'l9asmanian eucalyptus.
(e. gunnii of J. :XooRer.)
BY L. RODWAY (Government Botanist).
In the year 1844 Sir ,T oseph Hooker
descrihp.d in the "London ,T ournal of
'Botany" a eucalypt, and named it "Eu-
calyptus 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-
(9 )
liahle plate. The plant descrihed was
from Tasmanian material, and accurately
represents the tree so common in some
parts of our Midlands, from Mount Field
to Ironstone Range, and known iocally
as the cider gum. Like most other
eucalypts, the tree varies, and it is a
THE TASMANI A!'; NATURALIST,
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( 10 )
THE TASMANIAN NATURAlIST.
matter of individual opinion haw ftlr the
name shall cover varieties, and where
another name shall be used. Hotanists
ha ve long given up the idea of immuta-
h!lit,v, and recognise that except
in fa voured cases 'U specific name
i" only a convenient but arbi-
trary appellation for a poorly cir-
cumscribed group of varying forms. Bi-
ologists, in order to avoid confusion, de-
cribe a particular being under a
name. That form, whether well or ill
chosen, becomes for all time the type
bearing t.hat name, and all related forms
are compared with it. The elder gum
oil' ll'aSlmaniRhs ,tlhe itylpe of '"Jjhl'cal-
yptus gunnii" of Hooker. Any persons
who endeavour tu shift this . uuk com-
mit an offence against the laws of botani-
cal nomenclature, They not only rob
the first person of his little bit of spon-
sorial conceit, but raise up confusion in
the work to be done by subsequent stu-
dents. Ther" has been no botanist so
great that by his ipse dixit he could,
with certainty, change a name. Von
great as he was, failed IJl most
instances where he tried it_ He tried
it in 1&30 with Hooker's "Eucalyptus
gunnii," only to bear the unfortunate re-
sult that to-day few Australian botanists
refer to the same form when they ust'
the name, aud men, when they send
order" :for seed: OIf "IE'U'0aly:p-
tUB gunnii" sometimes get what they
want, but they generally do not. The
typical tree has a smooth, white bark;
alternate, sblked, oblong, equal-sided
leaves of rather thick texture, seldom or
never pointed. Flowers are small, shortly-
stalked, and three together in axillary
u)llbels. 'rhe operculum varies from
shortly hemispheritl to nearly conical.
'rhe fruit is small oblong to hemispheric,
about two to three lines diameter, with
a thin rim, and sunk capsule. Even
Hooker was guilty of an error. We have
a tree common on lowlands closely re
lated to cider gum. It has somewhat
different bark and leaves, more fiowers
in the umbel, different fruit, all dif
ferent in degree, but not essentially.
Hooker described this as "Eucalyptus
acervuhj, of' fSleber, which it certainly
i,s no't.'Muelle'r, Tefcognis,ing ".le error
Hooker had made tried to remedy it by
making a worse one. He suppressed the
name "acervula," and adopted the plant
gO described as the type form of "eucal-
yptus gunnii" Hooker. It appears as
such in his "Eucalyptographia," with a.
little bit of the original form appearing
as an interesting variety. The plate
which appears in this number is a photo-
graph of a sprig of the type plant. It
is not a very good sped men, but was the
!les't lLntilahle. The ,piece with I)J'oad.pale
is t
1
w 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, the ob-
ject of study being botany, and the
leader 'sfI', [.. :Roaway, Iwho 'took the
party to Bellerive and thence along the
Rokeby-roatl. After walking about a
mile a large lowlying piece of ground
was met with, and here were found
many fiourishing shrubs, and in spring it
looks' quite gay wi,th the f,ollowing
plants: -Saeckia diffusa, Aotis villo.sa,
Pimelia Iinifolia, Leucopogon ericoides,
Epacris impress'U, several acacias, and
many other kinds. Club moss was also
found growing freely.
in the bird line was a large nest in a
eucalypt, which was probably that of a.
g08-hawk, as this bird. was seen fiying
.high overhead with something in its
claw. \Vedge-tajled eagles had a nest
near the summit of this mountain for
many years, and the Stewarts, of Risdon
Ferry, have said they had been there for
30 years. Young birds were reared for
the last time in 1J.006. The tree they
built ,in was an exceedingly hard one to
,climb, and few, if any, ever reached the
nest. The tree blew down in July or
August of this year, and scat,tered ,the
nest amongst the scrub.
A geologica:J excursion to Sandy Bay
was held ori November 16, with Dr. F.
as leader. The Cliffs on the
roadside were first examined, and a clear
account of their formation was given by
,the leader. CoUectors obtained fossil
s'pecimens of leaf impressions, e,tc., from
the sedimentary deposits here. A visit
was also paid to One Tree Point, where
the strata of volcanic and sedimentart