109 



N. Ord. MYETACE^E. 

 Tribe Leptospermece. 



Genus Eucalyptus,* L'Heritier. B. & H., Gen., i, p. 707. 

 Species about 150, nearly all found in Australia. 



109. Eucalyptus Globulus,t LabilL, Voyage Rech.de La Perouse, 



i,p. 158 (1799). 



Blue Gum-tree (Tasmania). 



Figures. Labillardiere, Yoy. Rech. de La Perouse, Atlas, t. 13; F. 

 Mueller, Plants indigenous to Colony of Victoria, Supp., t. 16. 



Description. One of the largest known trees, reaching occa- 

 sionally to the gigantic height of over 300 feet, and not unfre- 

 quently to over 200 feet, and yet in some situations reduced to a 

 dense bush. Trunk smooth, grey, the thick outer layers of the 

 bark always easily peeling off, the young branches with 4 narrow 

 herbaceous wings, smooth. Leaves on young plants opposite, 

 decussate, with a short not twisted petiole, broadly ovate, with a 

 cordate base and an acute apex, smooth, very pale, greenish-blue, 

 almost white ; on the full-grown tree alternate, with the petiole about 

 an inch long, flattened above, and twisted half-way round, blade 

 placed vertically with its flat surfaces lateral, 6 12 inches long, 

 falcate, oblong-lanceolate, with a slightly tapering base, and a very 

 much attenuated tapering apex, quite entire, smooth and shining, 

 thick and leathery, with numerous immersed oil-glands, dull green, 

 midrib prominent, pale, secondary veins regular, parallel, uniting 

 with a continuous nerve which runs parallel with the margin, and 

 at a little distance within it for the whole length. Flowers 

 large, sessile, 2 or 3 closely crowded together, or solitary, on the 

 expanded summit of a short, broad, much compressed, axillary 

 peduncle ; buds very glaucous, smooth, nearly half consisting of 

 a large, thick, hemispherical, conical lid (operculum), covered 



* Name from tv, well, and icaXv7rro<;, covered; in reference to the lid or 

 operculum of the bud. 

 f Globulus, a little ball, from the button-like form of the fruit. 



