450 EUCALYPTS OF THE COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND, 



justly remarks, tliat, in E. hcemastoma, the veins are more spreading 

 and prominent, the sterile stamens more numerous, and the fruit 

 more inclined to be hemispherical. Both trees grow in the same 

 soil, and they occur here and there on dry sandy ground from 

 the neiglibourhood of Sydney to the Blue Mountains, and seldom 

 attain any great lieight ; but the}^ do not flower precisely at the 

 same time. E. micrantha (BO.) seems to belong to the same 

 species, but the flower buds and fruit are much smaller. The 

 wood of the White Gum is not esteemed, being, according to the 

 views of (Sir W. Macarthur and Baron Mueller, generally crooked 

 in growth and apt to decay, though in some places it is used for 

 rough carpentry. As a wood for fuel, it is of very little value. 

 In the neighbourhood of Parramatta and also on the Blue 

 Mountains, this species appears sometimes with thin fibrous bark 

 on the butt, and with fruit larger, and hemispherical in shape. 

 This deviation from the typical form may, perhaps, be due to a 

 greater moisture in the soil. 



4. H. viminaUs, sometimes called '' Grey or Flooded Gum," and 

 sometimes ''Drooping or Manna Gum," is a species, which with 

 some variations extends to many parts of N. S. Wales. Though 

 on the Western side of the Dividing Range, and on the Southern 

 Coasts of Australia, it rises to 150 feet in alluvial soil, yet, in the 

 county of Cumberland, it is for the most part a tree of moderate 

 size with a smooth, greyish bark and drooping habit. It 

 resembles some forms of the common Grey Gum fE. tereticornisj 

 but it differs from that species in the size of the operculum, the 

 venation of the leaves, and the shape of the fruit. This is one 

 of the Eucalypts in which the operculum varies, being sometimes 

 hemispherical and sometimes conical, but seldom much longer 

 than the calyx tube. Whilst it may be admitted that the forms 

 of this tree, as found in many parts of the county of Cumberland, 

 are not specifically distinct from the Manna Gum of the interior, 

 yet the trees vary considerably in height, the colour of the bark, 

 and the value of the timber, whilst the so-called Manna is more 



