12 TASMANFAN EUCALYPTS, 



The following descriptions will aid in recognition. 



Black Feppermint (Euc. amygdalina, Lab.). — Usually 

 a small tree, but often remaining only of the dimensions 

 of a shrub. Slow growing, and on good land readu}'' 

 smothered by more robust competitors. The leaves are 

 long, nari'ow, straight, or slightly unequal-sided, usually 

 under one centimetre in diameter; substance thick, sur- 

 face O'ften shining, veins few and not widely diverging. 

 Flowers about seven to nine in the umbel, clavate in bud 

 with a very short, nearly flat, operculum. The fruit is 

 almost hemispheric, tapering at the base into a slioit 

 stalk ; the orifice is usually flat or convex, not at all or 

 but slightly constricted, valves not protruding, rim broad, 

 four to six millimetres diaimeter. The bark is fibrous and 

 persistent in the typical trees, but is very variable, leav- 

 ing no clear line of demarkation between BlarJc and U liife 

 Peppermints. 



The juvenile leaves of BJach I'epperinint are opposite, 

 sessile, linear, and more or less rough, with glands. The 

 timber of all the Fep per mints is very durable. 



In the neighbourhood of St. Mary's Pass Mr. Irby 

 observed in the forest of mixed Maiiiitain Ash and Blacl- 

 Peppermint a few trees which diffei'ed from either, but 

 were called Blael Pepper mnit \)y local inhabitants. The 

 trees were medium-sized, with a rough, pers:istent, semi- 

 fibrc'us bark. The juvenile leaves were narrow, opposite, 

 and sessile, very like those of Blacl- Peppermint. I'he 

 mature leaves also resembled the leaves o<f that species, 

 only tended to grow much longer. Flowers and fruit 

 smaller than, but much like those of, Mountain As/i. 

 Fruit is pear-shaped, much restricted at the orifice, rim 

 narrow, valves deeply sunk; stalks slightly flattened. R. 

 T. Baker described it as a new species under the name of 

 Euc. tceniola, but it seems probable it is a hybrid between 

 Blacl' Peppermint and Mountain Ash. 



White Peppermint {Euc. linearis, Denh.). — Always a 

 small tree, whose natural habitat is on basaltic hills, where 

 the mere rohust species cannot freely establish themselves. 

 In the typicaJ tree the bark is not at all fibrous, a.nd 

 scales oft' to the base, leaving thei trunk white and smooth. 

 The leaves are very narrow, but those of the seedlings are 

 smooth, broader, and more oblong or ovate than those of 

 Black Peppermint. The flowers and fruit are also as in 

 that species, but smaller. Intermediate specimens be- 

 tween the two species are common. 



Blue Peppermint, also known as Risdon Gum, some- 

 times Cabbage Gum or Bastard Blue Gum {Euc. risdoni, H .) 



