EUCALYPTUS OBLIQUA. 



L'H6ritier, sertum Anglicum 18, t. 20 (1788) ; Aiton, hortus Kewensis ii. 157 (1789) ; Smith, Botany of New Holland 

 43 ; Transactions of the Linnean Society iii. 287 ; Lamarck, tableau encyclop6dique et methodique des trois 

 regnes de la nature, Botanique t. 422 ; Salisbury, Paradisus Londinensis, t. 15 ; W. T. Aiton, hortus Kewensis, 

 second edition iii. 193 ; F. M., fragmenta phytographise Australia ii. 45 et 172 ; Bentham, flora Australiensis 

 iii. 204 ; E. gigantea, J. Hooker, in London Journal of Botany vi. 479 ; flora Tasmanica i. 136, t. xxviii. ; 

 E. fabrorum, Schlechtendal, Linnsea xx. 656 ; E. nervosa et partim E. falcifolia, Miquel, in Nederlandisk 

 Kruidkundig Archief iv. 136 et 139. 



Finally very tall ; leaves scattered, sickleshaped- or sometimes oval-lanceolar, equally green 

 and shining on both sides ; their lateral veins not tcry spreading, rather prominent, the circum- 

 ferential vein somewhat removed from the edge ; oil-dots concealed ; umbels with 4 to several or 

 less frequently 3 or many flowers, lateral and axillary ; stalk rather slender, slightly compressed ; 

 calyces somewhat glandular-rough, not angular ; lid hemispherical, depressed or scarcely pointed ; 

 tube conspicuously longer than the lid, obconical, gradually attenuated into an usually short 

 stalklet ; stamens comparatively short, all fertile, inflexed before expansion ; anthers kidney/shaped ; 

 fruit truncatc-orate, somewhat contracted at the orifice, rim outwards narrow ; valccs enclosed, oftener 

 4 than 3, rarely 5, short ; sterile seeds mostly not much narrower than the fertile seeds, all 

 without appendage. 



On mountain-ranges as well of the silurian as granitic formation, also occasionally on sandy 

 heathy ridges, from St. Vincent's Gulf to Gippsland, scarcely passing into the territory of New 

 South Wales, constituting vast forests, frequent also in Tasmania, ascending to high but not to 

 alpine elevations. 



The " Stringybark-tree " of South Australia and Tasmania, but in Victoria more generally 

 called the " Messmate-tree," on account of its resemblance to E. macrorrhyncha, which in our 

 colony passes mostly as Stringybark-tree. 



A straight-stemmed tree of rapid growth, attaining a maximum-height of about 300 feet and 

 almost always lofty, though occasionally flowering already in an almost shrubby state. Bark 

 persistent on stem and branches, very fibrous, easily igniting, not tough but rather soft and fragile, 

 outside somewhat greyish, not so deeply furrowed as that of E. macrorrhyncha. Stem pro- 

 portionately tall. Leaves of young saplings broad, verging somewhat into a cordate form. 

 Ordinary leaves rather stiff, very unequal-sided towards the base, hence the specific name, which 

 however applies to the majority of congeners ; veins diverging at a very acute angle. Umbels 

 containing sometimes as many as 20 flowers. Flowerbuds together with their stalklets clubshaped. 

 Stigma not dilated beyond the width of the style. 



E. obliqua was the species, first of all rendered known, and on which 1'He'ritier founded the 

 genus, so named in allusion to the flowers, well covered by a cap or lid, although Dr. Wm. 

 Anderson, the surgeon of Capt. Cook's second and third expeditions, had bestowed not inaptly the 

 name of Aromadendrum on the genus already, when visiting with Capt. Furneaux the bay, on 

 which Hobarton has since arisen. In the Catalogue of the Banksian Library ii. 32 and iii. 184 

 (according to Robert Brown) the appellation given by Surgeon Anderson was early recorded. As 

 surmised by me (in the fragmenta ii. 45) it is this very species, which was collected during 

 Furneaux's voyage at Adventure-Bay, and this was proved subsequently by Mr. Rich. Kippist, 

 who at my request compared the original specimen in the Banksian collection. I had no access in 

 1860 to the second edition of the Hortus Kewensis, where already in 1811 Tasmania was mentioned 

 as the native land of E. obliqua, the erroneous statement in the Transactions of the Linnean 



