EUCALYPTUS ROBUSTA. 



Smith, specimen of the Botany of New Holland 40, 1. 13 (1793) ; transactions of the Linnean Society iii. 283 (1796) ; 

 De Candolle, prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis iii. 216; F. T. M., fragment u phytographife 

 Australia' ii. 43 ; Bentham, flora Australiensis iii. 228 ; E. rostrata, Cavanilles, icones et descriptiones plantarum 

 iv. 23, t. 342 (1797). 



Finally tall ; branchlets stout, angular ; leaves large, scattered, oval-lanceolar, pointed, of 

 thick consistence, shining, paler beneath, hardly or slightly inequilateral ; veins copious, prominent, 

 very spreading, the circumferential vein rather close to the slightly recurved margin of the leaf ; 

 oil-dots much concealed or obliterated ; umbels solitary, axillary, soon lateral or a few singly 

 terminal, with 4 to 12 or exceptionally 3 or 2 flowers ; their stalk broad, strongly compressed ; 

 calyces rather large, pale, their lid hemispherical or semiocate below, cylindric- conical-pointed 

 towards the summit, somewhat broader than the obconical-bellshaped tube of the calyx and nearly 

 as long or slightly longer ; stamens all fertile, inflexed before expansion ; anthers oblong-oval, 

 opening by longitudinal slits ; stigma not broader than the style ; fruits truncated-ovate, not or 

 but little angular, oftener 3- than 4-celled ; their rim narrow ; valves enclosed, permanently or long 

 coherent, rather narrow ; seeds small, all without appendage, the fertile much broader than most 

 of the sterile seeds. 



From the vicinity of Twofold-Bay (near Merimbula) to the Richmond-River, occupying wet 

 localities, reaching possibly the most eastern regions of Gippsland. 



A very large tree, passing as the principal " Swamp-Mahogany " with the colonial settlers 

 (E. botryoides sharing in some places the same appellation), a name very inappropriate, even if 

 the wording of " Mahagoni " was not preferable, as the classic term of the West-Indian tree 

 (Swietenia Mahagoni, L., allied to our "Red Cedar"), which yields the unique furniture-wood of 

 that name. E. robusta attains a height of fully 100 feet, with a stem of sometimes 50 feet length 

 and a girth of 12 feet (W. Kirton). Limbs " massive and spreading." Bark persistent, " brittle, 

 shelly," outside greyish, wrinkled and somewhat furrowed, " turning sometimes to a rusty color " 

 (Fawcett). Foliage "nobly grand" (Kirton). Leaves scattered, attaining sometimes a length 

 of 7 inches and a width of 2 inches, some occasionally of narrow-lanceolar form. Umbel-stalks 

 | to 1 inches long. Stalklets stout, merging gradually into the calyx, seldom more than half as 

 long as the fruit, usually much shorter. Flowers rather variable in dimensions, but never very 

 small. Style elongated. Fruit occasionally almost urnshaped, always longer than broad and often 

 considerably so, in rare instances almost sessile on the stalk ; summit of the fruit forming a very 

 narrow ring above the calyx-tube. Valves frequently reaching to near the summit or sometimes 

 slightly beyond it. Ripe seeds brown, hardly one line or even less long. 



Dr. Leichhardt in 1843 recorded the native name as " Dadangba." In the Richmond-River 

 district it is called " Gunnung " according to Mr. Fawcett. 



E. robusta resembles in some respects E. resinifera, but the leaves are generally broader, of a 

 lighter color above and more shining beneath, their veins are more prominent, not almost hori- 

 zontally spreading, nor is the intra-marginal vein nearly contiguous with the edge ; the flowers 

 are larger, the tube of the flowering calyx is longer and more bellshaped, the lid more turgid 

 beneath, the fruit considerably longer, the valves are enclosed, convergent and remaining often 

 connected at their summit, while the fruit-rim is thinner and surrounded by a narrower ring. 

 However the variety pellita of E. resinifera has the large flowers and broad leaves of E. robusta, 

 but the proportionately short fruit with exserted and mostly free, erect and acute valves of the 



