14 



DESCRIPTION. 



XLIII. E. hemiphloia, F.v.M. 



Fragm. ii. 62 is quoted by Mueller liimself (Census) as the descriptiou of his species, 

 and following is a translation of the quotation itself. (It is a paragraph under the 

 heading of U. persicifolia on the previous page.) 



E. hemiphloia and E. leptophleba* remain over of the nearly allied species which I have examined. 

 I have received a similar species, if not a variety more or less allied to E. leucoxylon, from various localities 

 in New England, N.S.W. They are distinguished, it would appear, by really chartaceous leaves, the 

 intra-marginal veins of which are very close to the edge, or at least not frequently far removed from it, by 

 the pedicels thickened into the very slightly angular calyx-tube, by the conical operculum, shorter and 

 paler, less coriaceous and hardly acuminate, not equal to the width of the calyx-tube, by the smaller anthers 

 rather sub-globose or quadrate-ovate, by the slightly dilated stigma and the t- to 6-celled capsules. 



This shares the name " Ironbark tree " with that Eucalypt distributed by Sieber under the number 

 468 (this is E. paniculata, Sm. — J.H.M.,) with which it exactly agrees. Both should perhaps be combined, 

 and probably represent the true E. resinifera. 



This is a very cryptic description of a species and one would not have been 

 surprised if one had heard nothing further of it. As a matter of fact, Mueller 

 omitted both hemijMoia and leptophleba from the " Index generum et specierum in 

 volumine secundo descriptorum " (p. 184) of the same volume {Fragm. ii). 



So far as I know, one does not hear of E. hemiphloia again until Bentham 

 described the species in B.Fl. iii, 216 (1866), which, as far as I can see, was really 

 a nonien nudem in 1861-2 (date of publication of Frmjm ii). Mueller subsequently 

 figured and described E. hemiphloia in the " Eucalyptographia." 



The passage I have translated is a conundrum, and not on a par with 

 Mueller's usually good work. \_En parenthese, the " similar species " (query to 

 " E. hemAphloia and E. leptophleba ? ), and which, according to Mueller's reference 

 in the Census is E. hemiphloia, is apparently a New England ironbark, and one of 

 its characters is " the conical operculum .... not equal to the width of the 

 calyx-tube." The specimen before Mueller appears not to be in existence, but the 

 few words apply with special appropriateness to my E. Caleyi.'] Bentham's 

 description is, however, perfectly clear, except as regards the mix-up with the 

 South Australian specimens (see p. 15). 



Notes Supplementary to the Description. 



Besides the normal form, there are two well-marked forms, viz., var. albens 

 and var. microcarpa. They have, inter alia, the following characters in common : — 



3. Broadness of juvenile foliage. 



• Previously described by Mueller in Proc. Linn. Soc. iii., 86 (1859), from the Gilbert River, Queensland. In the 

 game paper pp. 99, 100, he liad established a section of Eucalyptus which he called " Hemiphloise," but there is no mention 

 of an S. hemiphloia. 



