Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M46, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 79.12.16

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

William Woolls to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1879-12-16. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id//letters/1870-9/1879/79-12-16-final.odt>, accessed May 7, 2026

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MS found with a specimen of
Eucalyptus cinerea

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(MEL 1606640), from Lake George, NSW.
Richmond
2
NSW.
Decr 16th 1879
My dear Baron,
Please accept my best thanks for your splendid work on the Timber of Western Australia.
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B79.13.10.
I should like to write a long review of it, but the S. M. Herald is so full of Parliamentary intelligence that it seems now to delay inserting any articles on Botany. They have kept my last paragraph for a fortnight. When I have an opportunity, I must talk seriously to Mr Fairfax on the subject.
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An unsigned short notice on 'Forest Resources of Western Australia' appeared in the Sydney morning herald, 20 December 1879, p. 5.
The Eucalyptus with broad opposite sessile leaves from Lake George ( E. cinerea ?) is not a Stringy Bark, but more of the Peppermint kind with less fibrous bark. I am not aware that this species extends to the Castlereagh. E. melanophloia , though similar to E. cinerea in dried specimens, is a kind of Iron Bark, but the wood is very inferior to any of the Iron Barks near Sydney. E. melanophloia does not extend to Bathurst. It is rather a northern species. E. pulverulenta or the Argyle Apple is a small tree, which I saw near Berrima. It has bark similar to that of
Angophora intermedia

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. If E. cinerea & E. pulverulenta are varieties of one species, the difference of the bark may arise from geological considerations; but Mr Bentham says that the fruit differs in shape.
E. diversifolia or the Camden Woolly Butt is a large tree of the Hemiphloiae. The lower part of the tree is covered with fibrous bark, similar to that of Stringy Bark, but the upper part & branches are smooth. This is a Southern species, & apparently fond of elevated situations.
I will send you by this post
(1) Seedlings of E. punctata : the young leaves are somewhat glaucous on the under surface
(2) Sp. of E. diversifolia from Sutton Forest
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NSW.
(3) Sp. of E. cinerea from Lake George
(4) Sp. of Gum from Molong (beyond dividing Range),
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NSW.
probably a var. of E. tereticornis (brevifolia ? Benth.)
(5)
Scleranthus

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&
Eriocaulon

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from Agnes Banks near Richmond
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