Eucalyptus 1631 



EUCALYPTUS PAUCIFLORA, Weeping Gum 



Eucalyptus paucifiora, 1 Sieber, in Sprengel, Syst. IV. Cur. Post. 195 (1827); Mueller, Eucalypto- 



graphia, Dec. iii. (1889); Rodway, Tasmanian Flora, 55 (1903). 

 Eucalyptus coriacea, A. Cunningham, ex Schauer in Walpers, Rep. ii. 925 (1843); J. D. Hooker, 



Fl. Tasm. i. 136 (i860); Bentham and Mueller, Fl. Austral, iii. 201 (1866); Maiden, in Rep. 



Austr. Assoc. Advance. Science, Hobart, 1902, p. 353, and Revision Genus Eucalyptus, i. 133, 



plates 26-28 (1904). 

 Eucalyptus submultiplinervis, Miquel, in Nederl. Kruidk. Arch. iv. 138 (1859). 

 Eucalyptus phlebophylla, Mueller, ex Miquel, in Nederl. Kruidk. Arch. iv. 140 (1859). 



A tree, attaining in Australia and Tasmania, 100 ft. in height and 12 ft. in girth. 

 Bark peeling off, smooth and white. Young branchlets green or more or less 

 covered with a whitish bloom. Leaves (Plate 365, Fig. 7) on adult trees, alternate, 

 lanceolate, about 5 in. long and f in. wide, usually falcate, unequal and cuneate at 

 the base, gradually tapering to an acuminate apex, which is tipped with a long slender 

 hook-like curved point ; green and shining on both surfaces, thick and firm in texture; 

 margin entire or undulate ; main lateral nerves apparently longitudinal, arising near 

 the base, and running for a considerable distance parallel to the midrib ; petiole 

 twisted, about \ in. long. 



Flowers in axillary umbels of five to fourteen ; peduncles \ to \ in. long, slender ; 

 flower-bud with pedicel about in. long ; calyx-tube obconic gradually passing into 

 the terete or quadrangular pedicel ; operculum hemispheric or shortly conic, and 

 ending at the apex in a short point ; stamens usually all perfect ; anthers reniform, 

 with short divergent cells confluent at the apex. Fruit, on short slender pedicels 

 (less than ^ in. long), pyriform, smooth, narrowed near the summit, to fy in. 

 long and wide, with a broad rim and a narrow orifice ; capsule included, with the 

 valves when open extending nearly to the orifice. 2 



This species occurs in Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, and South 

 Australia. In Tasmania, where it is known as weeping gum, on account of its 

 pendulous branches and branchlets, it is a small tree, usually much branched, and 

 attaining in favourable situations only 60 or 70 ft. in length. Mueller says that it 

 grows both on the ridges of the lowlands and on the highlands. 



In Australia it is known either as white gum from the colour of its bark, or cabbage 

 gum on account of the softness of its timber. In Victoria, where it occurs in the 

 south, north-east, and east, it appears to be essentially an alpine species, ascending 

 in the Gippsland Alps, where it forms forests, to 5000 ft. ; yet it is able to maintain 

 itself to some extent in localities but little elevated above sea-level. In South 

 Australia it only occurs in patches close to the sea-coast in the south-eastern 

 district. 



In New South Wales, it grows usually in the undulating grassy country in the 



1 Sieber's name, being the earliest and accompanied by a clear description, must be adopted, though it is not very 

 appropriate, this species producing copious flowers. 



2 The cotyledons are figured by Kerner, Mat. Hist. Plant, Eng. Trans, i. 621, fig. 148 (1898). 



VI 2 Q 



