26 



DESCRIPTION. 



XLIV. E. odorata, Belir and Schlechtendal. 



Originally described by Behr and Schlechtendal in L'mnea xx, 547 and 567 (1847). 

 See also Mueller in Fragm. ii, ^& (1860). 



Then Mueller has a plate in " Plants Indigenous to the Colony of Victoria. 

 (Lithograms, 1864-5.) Supplementary plate xvii," labelled E. odorata. The 

 anthers are, however, not those of E odorata, but of E. melliodora. No juvenile 

 foliage is shown, nor is the origin of the specimen indicated. The twig might do 

 alike for E. odorata or for E. melliodora, as the differences between the two species 

 are not brought out. 



Then Bentham (B.H. iii, 215) described the species in English, and 

 Mueller subsequently described and figured it (rather diagramatically) in the 

 " Eucalyptograjihia." 



The original description, by Behr and Schlectendal, is in Latin, of which the 

 following is a translation. The portion [ ] is in German. 



Branches elongated, glabrous in all parts, the young ones angular (angles two, starting from 

 the base of the petiole and becoming much more prominent upwards), the old ones terete, with a greenish- 

 brown bark. 



The umbels shortly pedunculate, and springing from the axils of the leaves which have been shed 

 or more rarely persist from the past year ; the peduncle from \ to | inch long, bearing six to fifteen 

 flowers on short pedicels ; the pedicels about a line long, thick and angular, passing by degrees into the lube 

 of the calyx, about 2 lines long, the top cylindrical, the whole fruit obconical in shape, the operculum 

 scarcely H lines long, bluntly conical. The stamens arranged in several rows, at first with the filaments 

 bent, finally \\ lines long. The style terminated by a flattened stigma, sometimes below the edge of the 

 calyx, sometimes more or less emerging from it. Leaves oblong (with the petiole 3-4i inches long) slightly 

 oblique, scarcely ever curved, narrowing at the base into the petiole, with the top blunt and then sometimes 

 mucronate or acute or continued into a short point, uniformly glaucous, with numerous oil-dots, the 

 margin of a paler colour and slightly thickened, with a netted venation prominent on both sides (in dried 

 specimens), the primary veins forming an intramarginal vein, the space between margin and vein venulose. 

 More often the leaves are irregularly lobed (sic\ with one or other of the lobules very blunt at the side 

 or meeting towards the top. ("Saepius folia irregular! ter lobata apparent, lobulo uno alterove 

 obtusissimo in latere vel apicem versus occurente," in the original. I have not noticed lobing in this 

 species. — J. H.M. ) 



[Moderate-sized tree fairly common on dry spots and light soil. It exudes a gum which might be 

 used like gum-kino. Its leaves are filled with abundant volatile oil and smell strongly when it is inclined 

 to rain. The stem is rough as it does not shed the bark. (Peppermint of the Colonists.)] 



1. Typiea. 



Following is a type specimen : — 



Eucalyptus odorata, Behr and Schlecht. (sine nom. ex herb., Behr), Light's 

 Pass, Sandberg, Nov. Holl. Austr., Dr. Perd. MixUer." (Copy of label in herb. 

 Melb. in Mueller's handwriting.) 



An identical specimen is labelled " Euc. odorata, var. erythrostoma. 

 Light's Pass." 



