EUCALYPTUS AMYGDALINA. 



Labillardiere, Norse Hollandiae plantarum specimen ii. 14, t. 154 (1806) ; Candolle, prodromus systematis natnralis 

 regni vegetabilis iii. 219 ; Hooker, Botanical Magazine t. 3260 ; J. Hooker, flora Tasmanica, i. 35 ; F. v. M., 

 fragmenta phytographia; Australia; ii. 53 ; Bentham, flora Australiensis iii. 202 ; E. radiata, Sieber, in Candolle 

 prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis iii. 218 ; Candolle, memoire sur la famille des myrtacSes, t. 7 ; 

 J. Hooker, flora Tasmanica i. 137 ; E. elata, Dehnhardt, catalogus plantarum horti Camaldulensis p. 26 (1829) ; 

 E. tenuiramis, Miquel, in Nederlandisk Kruidkundig Archief iv. 128 ; E. nitida, J. Hooker, flora Tasmanica, 

 i. 137, t. xxix. 



The " Giant-Eucalypt " or " Wangara." Finally very tall ; branclilets slender ; leaves on 

 rather short stalks, scattered or rarely opposite, narrow- or sickleshaped-lanceolar or very narrow, 

 usually attenuated into an acute but oblique base, generally not of thick consistence, mostly of a 

 saturated green and somewhat shining on both sides ; lateral veins very thin, not much spreading, 

 nor closely approximated, the circumferential vein remote from the edge of the leaf ; oil-dots very 

 copious, transparent ; umbels with few or oftener several or many flowers, solitary, axillary, on 

 slender almost cylindrical or slightly angular sometimes very short stalks ; calyces small, attenuated 

 into a short thin stalklet, not angular ; tube obconical, upwards dilated, usually twice as long 

 as the hemispheric blunt or short-pointed lid ; stamens very short, all fertile, inflexed before 

 expansion ; antlers very small, nearly kidneyshaped, opening with divergent slits ; stigma hardly 

 broader than the style ; ripe fruits small, semiovate or sometimes verging towards a truncate- 

 globular form, 3- to 4- or rarely 5-celled, the rim finally flat and usually rather broad ; valves 

 tender, convergent, deltoid, close to the orifice, slightly or not exserted ; fertile as well as sterile 

 seeds quite small, all without appendage. 



From the southern and the whole eastern humid districts of the colony of Victoria extending 

 to the base of the Alps, to the Blue Mountains and the literal slopes of New South Wales, not 

 far advancing on the western fall of the country, frequent in Tasmania, ascending to about 4,000 

 feet elevation. 



This Eucalyptus is one of the most remarkable and important of all plants in the whole 

 creation ! Viewed in its marvellous height when standing forth in its fullest development on the 

 slopes or within glens of mountain-forests, it represents probably the tallest of all trees of the 

 globe ; considered as a hardwood-tree of celerity in growth it ranks among the very foremost ; 

 regarded in reference to its timber the tall variety can fairly be classed with the superior kinds of 

 Eucalypts, and contemplated in respect to the yield of volatile oil from its copious foliage it is 

 unsurpassed and perhaps not equalled by any other tree in the whole world ! These various 

 signal qualities of E. amygdalina having become gradually known, much through the exertions of 

 the writer, this tree has found already a wide appreciation abroad, in countries neither subject to 

 severe frosts nor to intense moist heat. It assumes under different climatic and geologic conditions 

 various forms ; thus in the irrigated ravines of cooler ranges the tree attains the most towering 

 height, combined with a perfect straightness of stem, while the outer layers of its bark decorticate 

 so completely as to render the huge stems quite smooth and almost white, the habit then being 

 that of its only rival in loftiness among congeners, namely E. diversicolor (the Karri of West 

 Australia). This lofty state of the tree passes as one of the White Gum-trees (and even also as 

 Mountain-Ash in the Dandenong-Ranges), while phytographically it has been distinguished as 

 " regnans." According to Mr. F. Abbott it is this form, which constitutes the " Swamp Gum- 

 tree" in Tasmania, where already Sir William Denison placed early its huge dimensions on record. 

 In more open and in merely ridgy country E. amygdalina remains much lower in stature, even 



