EUCALYPTUS MICROTHECA. 







E. microtheca is in flower from December to February ; but the anthesis may not be syn- 

 chronous in all localities and in every year, as it may to some extent depend on the time of the 



principal rainfall. 



The specific name of E. microtheca was chosen in reference to the comparative smallness of 



the fruit. 



Bentham (Flora Australiensis iii. 223) unites E. microtheca with E. brachypoda ; but as 

 pointed out already in the fragmenta (xi. 14) Drummond's plant iv. 73 belongs to the southern 

 regions of Western Australia, only his subsequent collections, particularly the sixth, bringing 

 plants from the neighborhood of the Murchison-Kiver. His plant in the Melbourne collection is 

 also not in fruit; but the flowering specimen, to which Turczaninow's description is well 

 applicable, agrees with E. rudis. Thus also the figure, named E. brachypoda, among a number of 

 woodcuts, representative of various forms of Eucalyptus-fruits, as given by Mr. W. B. Hemsley 

 in the Gardener's Chronicle for 1883 page 464, is referable to E. microtheca. Mr. K. H. Bennett 

 notes E. microtheca and E. populifolia irrespective of E. oleosa as possessing water-yielding roots, 

 but according to his observations E. microtheca yields most of the precious fluid. The lateral 

 roots are lifted by the natives with sharp-pointed sticks or their spears to the surface from about 

 a foot or less depth and to a distance of 15 or more feet from the tree, the overlying earth when 

 necessary being removed by wooden shovels ; the root is then cut into pieces of about 18 inches 

 length and the bark peeled off ; if the water, on placing these fragments vertically, does not at 

 once commence to ooze out spontaneously, the process is expedited by blowing vigorously at one 

 of the ends of the root-pieces ; roots of the size of a man's wrist are the best for this operation. 

 Mr. Bennett obtained in most favorable cases by these means a quart-pot full of water in half an 

 hour and found it beaiitifully clear, cool and free from any unpleasant taste. Mr. John Cairns (in 

 the Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria 1859, iii. p. 32) refers also fully to the 

 water-yielding Eucalypts as " Weir-Mallees." The courageous explorer Edw. John Eyre gave 

 likewise an account of this process for obtaining water (in the journal of his expeditions 

 i. 349-351). Roots from depressions in the ground yield the fluid more copiously. Main-roots 

 near the stem are not sufficiently porous for obtaining water therefrom. Messrs. Muir saw 

 Desert-Eucalypts also used widely in South- Western Australia for obtaining drinking water from 

 the roots, the Aborigines having entirely to depend on this source for water in many of their 

 hunting excursions, the roots chosen being about one inch in thickness, the surrounding soil being 

 often dusty dry. 



At some of the international exhibitions timber-specimens of Eucalyptus Eaveretiana were 

 shown as obtained from E. microtheca, but the color of the wood of the two is very different, as 

 pointed out well by Mr. P. O'Shanesy, that of E. Eaveretiaua being dark-brown and prettily marked, 

 that of E. microtheca reddish. The same keen observer of the Flora of subtropical Eastern 

 Australia noted also, that the natural location of these two kinds of trees in that region is sepa- 

 rated by a very broad line ; inasmuch as E. Eaveretiana is entirely confined to rich moist alluvial 

 soil and banks of watercourses, while E. microtheca is only to be found there on poor particularly 

 clayish soil, bordering on swamps especially in the " Brigalow-scrubs," it having a predilection for 

 places subject to occasional inundations, its area commencing near Expedition-Eange, thence 

 extending westward, into which region E. Eaveretiana never penetrates ; nor are the two species 

 ever found in company. The wood of both is very difficult to split, but would be valuable for 

 sawing. In the more central portions of Australia the timber of E. microtheca is of eminent 



