EUCALYPTUS MICROTHECA. 



F. v. M. in the proceedings of the Linnean Society iii. 87 (1857) ; Papers relative to Gregory's Expedition in search of 

 Leichhardt p. 7 (1859) ; fragmenta phytographias Australia: xi. 14 (1878) ; Report on the Forest-Resources of Western 

 Australia 11, pi. 11 (1879) ; E. brevifolia, F. v. M. in the proceedings of the Linnean Society iii. 84 ; E. brachypoda, 

 Bentham, flora Australiensis iii. 223, partly. 



Finally rather tall ; branchlets slender ; leaves scattered, on somewhat short stalks, narrow- 

 lanceolar or occasionally becoming sickleshaped or broad-lanceolar, pale greyish-green and not 

 shining on either side; their veins faint, close, pennately spreading, the circumferential vein 

 generally rather near to the edge of the leaf ; oil-dots quite concealed ; umbels %-%-fomered, mostly 

 forming terminal panicles ; umbel-stalks slender, of moderate length ; stalklets from very short to 

 as long as the calyx-tube ; calyces small, their tube almost hemispheric, not quite so long as the 

 semiovate-conical lid ; stamens very short, all except some of the outer inflexed before expansion ; 

 anthers minute, roundish-ovate or almost globular, opening by longitudinal slits ; stigma not 

 broader than the summit of the style ; fruits small, their border very narrow, valves 3-4, fully or 

 sometimes half exscrted, almost deltoid ; fertile seeds considerably larger than the sterile seeds, all 

 without any appendage. 



From the vicinity of the Murchison-Riyer scattered northward as far as Cambridge-Gulf and 

 the lower Victoria-River, widely though not gregariously distributed through the interior of 

 Australia, reaching the Darling- and Lachlan-River southward and the Flinders-River north- 

 eastward (F. v. M.), occurring also on Dampier's Archipelagus ( Gaxre/fc-Expedition), occupying 

 as well hilly as flat ground and even dry sandy places. 



The tree attains a height of 80 feet and a stem-diameter of 4 feet (K. H. Bennett) ; thus it is 

 one of the largest in the desert-tracts ; its aboriginal name in Riverina is " Tangoon," on the 

 Murchison-River "Callaille" and "Yathoo"; in Western Queensland the name, given by the 

 autochthones to this tree, is " Coolybah." Bark rough, more or less dark- or ashy-grey outside, 

 largely or even perfectly persistent, or its outer layer sometimes seceding, leaving the surface 

 smooth and whitish ; the bark is therefore as variable as that of E. crebra, shedding generally 

 more when the tree is growing in wet ground ; just as now also a smooth-barked form of 

 E. marginata is recorded by Mr. G. Simpson as the Salmon-barked Jarrah. Wood red-brownish 

 or reddish, remarkably hard, heavy and elastic (Woolls, O'Shanesy). Branchlets pensile. Leaves 

 sometimes fully a span long, the circumferential vein occasionally at a considerable distance 

 from the edge, but again particularly in narrow forms of the leaves almost contiguous with their 

 margin. Flowers agreeably scented, some in the panicle of umbels binate or singly scattered. 

 Tube of fruit-calyx almost hemispheric or nearly semiovate ; valves exceptionally five ; septa 

 thin ; fruit-cells widely opening. In the variety brevifolia the leaves become reduced to inch 

 width and the fruits to or even inch. 



E. microtheca is placed by Bentham judiciously next to E. crebra, from which it can best be 

 distinguished by thicker and paler leaves, by mostly shorter stalklets, by a less dilated stigma 

 and by the calyx-tube being broader and including generally only one-half of the capsular portion 

 of the fruit. From E. rostrata, with \thich species it is occasionally consociated, it differs in the 

 always pale and never shining leaves with very subtle veins, the circumferential less removed 

 from the edge of the leaves, particularly in the paniculated flowers with shorter stalklets, in the 

 blunt or less pointed lid, in the smaller almost roundish anthers, in the smaller fruits with very 

 narrow borders and in the comparatively broader sterile seeds. Under E. Raveretiana have been 

 pointed out already the differences, which separate that species from E. microtheca. 



