DESCRIPTION. 



E. inerassata, Labillardiere. 



Following is the original description of the species : — 



Eucalyptus operculo conico, calycis longitudine ; umbellis ancipiti pedunculo axillaribus ; foliis 

 oblongis, crassiusculis, subacuminatis. 



Sesquiorgyalis frutex, ramulis angulatis. Folio oblonga, acuminata, in petiolum subdecurrentia, 

 crassiuscula, coriacea, nervulis exarata depressis, alterna. Flores pedicellis brevibus urabellati, ancipiti 

 pedunculo longitudine petiolorum axillares. Calyx turbinatus, subangulatus, geimini adnatus, ultra 

 productus, subcampanulatus. Operculum coriacem, calycis latitudine. Stamina numerosa, summo calyci 

 aiBxa ; antheris subglobosis, bilocularibus, apici filamentorum pcdicellatis. Germen calyce immersum. 

 corticatum ; stylus vix staminibus loiigior, subulatus infra dilatatus, tetragunus ; stigma acutura. Capsula 

 ovato-turbinata, corticata calyce ultra producto, dilatato, quadrilocularis, intus et apice quadrifariam 

 dehiscens ; seminibus numerosis, oblongis, angulatis, ferrugineis, affixis receptaculo subcrustaceo-fungoso, 

 oblongo, ad singuli loculamenti angulum internum, axi fructus adnato. 



Habitat, in terra Van-Leuwin. 



1. Calycis sectio longitudinalis, intactu pistilhj. 



Obs. Quantum differat, praesertim foliis, ab Eucalypto I'ostrato, Cavan., ic, 4, p. 23, tab. 342 

 (£. robusta, Sm. J.H.MJ, et ab Eucalypto marginata, Smith, Linn. Trans. 6 p. 302, omnibus patet. 

 (Labillardiere in Ifov. Holl. PI. ii, 12, t. 150.) 



See also an abbreviated description in DC. Frod. iii, 217. 



Vernacular names. — It is a "Mallee." A mallee has a large massy stock 

 or dwarf trunk, from which spring a large number of stems. These stems sometimes 

 take on a circular arrangement. Mallee roots or stumps arc an esteemed article of 

 fuel wherever they can be obtained, and the following gives a good idea of their 

 massiveness and toughness. 



A well-established bull mallee is a problem to the ordinary grubbing contractor. The butt is a 

 great flattened bulb of curly timber, sometimes 8 or 10 feet through. It is set firmly into the soil, and 

 even if all the roots were cut (jff, the tree would stand in its place just the same, as the upper gi'owth is 

 very insignificant compared with the base. Chopping a mallee out is an obvious impossibility, and as 

 the wood is full of moisture it would be an almost eiidloss task to attempt burning it out. Dynamite and 

 rack-a-rock have proved equally useless. 



Before or rather behin<l the traction engine the difliculty disappears. For the rapid removal of 

 timljcr from land there is nothing to equal it. The only preliminary trouble lies in obtaining rope and 

 tackle sufficiently strong to enable the power of the engine to be exerted. The cable used for hauling out 

 the mallee stumps, at Mildura, is a steel- wire rope having a breaking strain of 100 tons, and the shackles 

 and anchoring gear are correspondingly stout. The first operatiim is to cut down all the trees, leaving the 

 stumps about 2 or 3 feet high. The trunk anfl branches are chopped up for firewood, and the leaves and 

 litter are raked up into heaps and burned. The traction engine, with an attendant gang of a dozen men, 

 then comes on the scene. The front end of the engine is first moored up to a stump, and the hind wheels 

 are chocked up with heavy billets of wood carried for the j)urpose. The niain axle carries a revolving drum 



