June I, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



789 



in the Ghor, at the south end of the Dead Sea, is 

 thp osher (Calhtropis gigantea), a large tree-like as- 

 clepiad, containing simply eDormous quantities of milky 

 acrid juice. Its properties are stated by Endlicher to 

 be powerfully purgative and emetic; but the natives 

 use it to give to women whose milk is scanty, probably in 

 accordance with the doctrine of signatories. Here, also, 

 grows the castor-oil plant, but its virtues are unknown 

 to the natives. A very striking plant, which, perhaps, 

 I should have mentioned before, and which often hangs 

 in graceful dark-green festoons from the granite walls 

 of the gorges of Arabia Petrtea, is the caper plant 

 (Copparis spinosa). The natives are very fond of the 

 fruit, which has a warm aromatic taste, and they 

 stroke the region of the epigastrium appreciatively 

 after eating one or two. The cortex of the root is 

 said to be aperient and diuretic. Another fairly- 

 common plant is a hyoscyamus, called by the natives 

 " sekharan," with fleshy leaves and purple flowers. 

 The dried leaves are used by the natives to smoke, 

 and produce a kind of intoxication or delirium ; and 

 an infusicu of the fresh leaves possesses strong narcotic 

 properties. It is nearly allied to the mandragora, 

 which becomes common on the limestone downs in 

 the South of Judtea. The Arabs are extraordinarily 

 susceptible to narcotics. Our tobacco they could not 

 gmoke at all; a few whiffs make them giddy, and 

 give them a headache; even a "Richmond Gem" 

 cigarette is too much fo them. Only two mineral 

 substances appear to be regarded by the Bedawia as 

 medicinal. One of them, sulphur, I have already 

 mentionfd; the other is a kind of common red coral, 

 found on the shores of the Ked Sea and Mediter- 

 ranean, aud sold in the bazaar at Gaza. As far as 

 I could gather, they only use this as a charm. — 

 Chemist and Druggist. 



— : ♦^- 



EUCALYPTI: BOTANICAL DISTINCTIONS OF 



THE OIL-PKODUCING SPECIES. 



The popular nomenclature of the eucalypts is as 

 confused and thoroughly bad as it could be. In the first 

 place the generic name of gum-tree is rather poor, as true 

 gum is by no means an abundant or characteristic 

 product of the eucalypt ; but the faults of the generic 

 name could easily be forgiven it, if a a happy and 

 discriminating series of specific names had been attach- 

 ed to it. Probably no great genus has ever had its 

 species so irritatingly mixed up by careless popular 

 naming. It must be allowed that the specific separation 

 of the eucalypts has proved a task of extreme diffi- 

 culty to botanists with the largest share of classifieatory 

 talent, and the amateur will find it a matter of some 

 little trouble to acquire moderate facility in distinguish- 

 ing many of even the commoner eucalypts without 

 good specimens of flowers and fruit. Broad general 

 characters, by which to distinguish the more nearly 

 related species, are hard to lay hold of, as will be 

 recognised when it is considered under what diverse 

 forms the individuals of a single species can present them- 

 selves according to the locality of their growth. Thus 

 trees which on the ranges appear as forest giants shoot- 

 ing up straight, with colossal smooth white trunks 

 are found in barren reaches near the sea as scrubby 

 stunted specimens, with wrinkled dark bark. An idea 

 of the utter confusion of the popular nomenclature, 

 may be gathered from the facts that there are no less 

 than six distinct species in Australia called the blue- 

 gum, the most important being the E. globulus, some- 

 times distinguished as the Tasmanian blue-gum. There 

 are three peppermint trees, namely, E. amygdalina, 

 E. odorata, and E. piperita ; there are three red-gums, 

 three mountain ashes, one of which is the amygdalina, 

 which has already figured as a peppermint tree; there 

 are nine white-gums, amygdalina again figuring in the 

 list; there .-.re eight ironbarks, and finally there are 

 fourteen boxes, very inadequately attempted to be 

 distinguished. The stringy-bark of South Australia and 

 Tasmania is the E. ohliqua, which in Victoria is mostly 

 known as_ messmate, while the tree called stringy-bark 

 in Victoria is the E. macrorrki/r.a. Under these cir- 

 cumstances the student of the' eucalypts will find it 

 discreet not to take his lessons from the bushmau or 



elector, but to go audi cons\x\tihe Eucalyptographia, 

 and learn to ignore the popular trivial names as com- 

 pletely as he can. 



The distinguishing characteristic from which the 

 genus got its name of eucalyptus, meaning "well-covered" 

 is the deciduous operculum or calyx-lid, which is 

 supposed to represent the united petals. It varies in 

 shape from hemispherical to elongated conical ; it is 

 always simple, sometimes thin, but oftener thick: 

 sometimes fleshy, but mostly woody ; the veins run 

 through it lengthwise, and are approximately parallel; 

 the Ime of separation of operculum from calyx tube 

 is nearly always distinct in the bud. Often in the 

 young bud a thin membrane is found covering the 

 operculum. The stamens are numerous and arranged 

 in series; the shape of the antlers was first employed 

 by Bentham as a diagnostic character for the syste- 

 matic classification of the eucaljpts, and with this 

 Mueller has joined the mode of opening the anthers. 

 The woody fruit consists of the bell-shaped calyx tube 

 enclosing the capsule; the seeds are mostly infertile. 

 The flowers as a rule are arranged in umbels, although in 

 a few exceptional cases they occur singly and sessile. 

 E. Amygdalina has an unfortunate specific name as 

 there is nothing the least almond-like about it. This 

 species is remarkable as containing perhaps the tallest 

 trees in the world and also trees with a larger secretion 

 of oil than any other known tree produces. The tree 

 varies considerably in external appearance, from the 

 giant "white-gum" form to the stunted rough-barked 

 form known in Victoria and Tasmania as a " peppermint " 

 and in New South Wales as a " messmate." Its leaves 

 are thin and equally green on both sides, the veins 

 do not spread out much, and the oil dots are abundant 

 and clearly visible. The flowers are small and grouped in 

 solitary umbels, the operculum is almost hemisperical 

 and almost half as large as the calyx tube, the anthers 

 are kidney-shaped and open by confluent slits ; the 

 frnits are small and truncate globular, with depressed 

 border and valves enclosed. This tree ranges along the 

 south-east coast of Australia and Tasmania ; it is always 

 interspersed with other trees, and its timber is not 

 much valued. 



E. oleosa. — This species will be taken as representative 

 of the four species that are mixed together in the mallee 

 scrub; it is a dwarf, ranging from 12 to 18 feet in 

 height, its leaves are of an equally bright green on 

 both sides, the flowers occur in solitary umbels with 

 slender stalks and short stalklets. The operculum is 

 semiovate, passing into a pointed cone, and is a little 

 longer than the calyx tube. The anthers are roundish, 

 opening by longitudinal slits, the fruits are truncate 

 ovate with compressed border, while the valves are half 

 inserted and prolonged into decided points. The oil 

 globules are plainly visible in the young leaves, but 

 tend to get concealed in the older ones. This is a 

 desert species found in the large tracts of mallee 

 country in the regions round the mouth of the Murray 

 and inland along it and its tributaries. 



E. Globulus has its leaves long, thick, and equally 

 green on both sides with the circumferential vein well 

 in from the edge, and the oil dots concealed. The 

 flowers are large, for the most part solitary, and al- 

 most sessile. The operculum is crown-shaped, and like 

 the calyx-tube is covered with the same blueish white 

 waxy bloom as gives the large ovate leaves of the seed- 

 lings and young trees of this species so characteristic 

 an apperance ; the anthers are distinctly longer than 

 broad, and open by parallel slits. The fruit is large 

 and hemispherical, whence the specific name. The 

 trees occur mostly dispersed, but sometimes gregarious 

 in the humid regions of the south and east of Victoria, 

 and in Tasmania. This is the eucalypt that has be- 

 come famous by reason of its unequalled rapidity of 

 growth, its fine timber and its malaria destroying 

 reputation. 



E. leucoan/lon has its leaves equally dull green on the 

 two sides, th.e flowers are mostly arranged in solitary 

 umbels of three flowers each, the operculum is semi- 

 ovate and pointed, the outer rows of stamens are 

 sterile, the anthers are roundi.sh and open by pores at 

 the summit, the stigma is broadly dilated, and the 

 fruit semi-ovate in shape, has a compressed border, and 



