88. Eucalyptus globulus. 



(Labill, Voy. I, 153, t. XIII.) 

 Blue Gum. 



Systematic. A lofty tree with a smooth, whitish-blue bark. Abnormal 

 leaves sessile, or shortly petiolate, cordate, covered (as also the twigs) with a 

 glaucous bloom. Normal leaves lanceolate, falcate, 9 inches to i foot long, 

 rather thick ; venation prominent, lateral veins spreading, oblique, intramarginal 

 vein removed from the edge. Flowers large, generally occurring in threes, in 

 the axils of the leaves, sessile or on very short thick pedicels. Calyx tube 

 broadly turbinate, thick woody, more or less ribbed .and rugose or warty or 

 nearly smooth, ^ to f inch diameter; operculum flattened, surmounted by a 

 thick centre, warty. A smooth secondary operculum is often found in this 

 species. 



Fruit. Hemispherical or cup shaped, 

 tuberculate, and strongly ribbed; 

 rim rounded or quite flat and 

 broad, and a pronounced groove 

 below the edge ; valves short, 

 depressed or exserted .... 

 Up to f inch long and i inch 

 in diameter or more. 



A fruit easily distinguished from any other of the genus. 

 A small, smooth fruited form that has a wide distri- 

 bution, and seed distributed abroad, is not E. globulus 

 but E. St. Johni, R.T.B. 



Habitat. Occurs in isolated patches on the southern half of 

 the coast range of New South Wales; Tasmania; 

 Victoria. 



REMARKS.- Xo species of Eucalypt has received so much attention, both from botanists and chemists, 

 as this particular tree. Mueller devotes several pages to it in his Eucalyptographia, and as his figure of the species 

 is excellent, it is reproduced here. The large white or cream-coloured flowers, the warted sessile fruits, the two 

 opercula, the square branchlets, and the glaucous sessile abnormal leaves are all characteristic features. It is one 

 of the Tasmanian species which also occur on the mainland of Australia, and has a fairly wide distribution in the 

 south-eastern parts, extending as far north in this State as Mount Corricudgy. The tree is a very rapid grower, 

 and for this reason is extensively planted in California and South Africa, where timber is in very great request 

 for the mines and fuel. The wood is pale-coloured, fairly hard, easily worked, but difficult to season. Its 

 occurrence in this State is patchy pnd so not much used for oil distillation. It has been extensively planted in 

 Algeria and in Europe, and the oil from the former locality enters into competition with the Australian product. 



ESSENTIAL OIL. Leaves and terminal branchlets for distillation were 

 obtained from Jenolan, N.S.W., in August, 1900. The yield of oil was 0-92 per 

 cent. The crude oil was but little coloured, and had the characteristic odour 

 of all those belonging to the richer cineol-pinene class of the "Gum" group of 

 Eucalypts. The oil was rich in cineol, contained some pinene, but phellandrene 

 was absent. Eudesmol was detected in very small amount in the higher boiling 

 portions, and the sesquiterpene was also present in the oil boiling above 260 C. 



The crude oil had specific gravity at 15 C. 0-913 ; rotation a n + 8-4 ; 

 refractive index at 20 1-4663, and was soluble in i-| volumes 70 per cent, 

 alcohol. The saponification number for the esters and free acid was 2-1. 



