EUCALYPTUS SIEBERIANA. 



E. virgata, Sieber, in Sprengel systema vegetabilium, curae posteriores 195 (1827); Candolle, prodromus systematis 

 naturalis regni vegetabilis iii. 217 (1S2S) ; Bentham, flora Australiensis iii. 202 ; Spicer, Handbook of the 

 Plants of Tasmania, 149 (1878). 



The " Yowiit." Finally tall ; leaves scattered, sicldesliaped-laiiceolar, shining and nearly of 

 equal color on both sides, more or less transparently dotted ; tlieir lateral veins more longitudinal 

 than transverse and faint, the intramarginal vein somewhat removed from the edge or evanescent ; 

 nmhels mostly solitary with 10-4 flowers, rarely still fewer ; Jlowerstalk xisually strongly com- 

 pressed; lid of the calyx hemispheric, quite blunt or oftener slightly pointed ; tube of the calyx 

 short, almost semiglobular, but attenuated into a rather thick short or not much elongated 

 stalklet, slightly or doubly longer than the lid ; stamens inflexed while unexpanded ; otiter 

 stamens sterile, with imperfect or without anthers ; fertile anthers almost kidneyshaped, pale ; 

 stigma not dilated ; fruit semiovate and somewhat pearshaped, 3- or sometimes 4- rarely 5-celled, 

 its rim depressed or quite flat, seldom through descent narrowed ; valves deltoid, very short, 

 convergent, usually affixed very close to the summit of the fruit ; seeds without any appendage, 

 the sterile rather short, but often comparatively broad. 



In the forests towards the Upper Yarra-waters and of Gippsland, ascending to 4,000 feet 

 elevation, extending along the Genoa up to the White Eock Mountains (F. M.), scattered along 

 the coast-regions of New South Wales (Kirton), passing on to the Blue Mountains, ascending in 

 the Silurian formation the Dromedary-Eanges to 1,500 feet (Wilkinson), occurring also on low 

 moist sandy tracts between the Glenelg-River and Mount Gambler and Lake Bonney (Dr. Wehl), 

 reappearing in Tasmania, frequent there on granitic coast-ridges and in valleys of rather sandy 

 or stony soil as well as on slate-hills, from Falmouth to George's Bay, occurring also on hills of 

 the sandstone-formation north of St. Mary (Bissill, Simson) and on East Mount Field at elevations 

 of from 1,000 to 1,500 feet (F. v. M.). 



A lofty tree (height 150 feet or even more), with a straight stem, which attains 5 feet in 

 diameter, but in the cripply Stringybark-forests near Lake Bonney dwarfed to 10 or 12 feet,, 

 though amply flowering. The trunk, to use Mr. Wilkinson's words, covered with deeply furrowed 

 bark of dark-brown color, resembling that of Ironbark, but not so hard, nor so solid, nor so 

 fibrous as that of the typical Stringybark. Branches smooth and pale. Mr. Simson calls the 

 bark of the stem very thick and very rough, scored down with seams, not to be pulled ofl^ like 

 Stringybark. On account of its much furrowed stem-bark the tree is called in Tasmania " Iron- 

 bark-tree," or on account of the smooth limbs " Gumtop " Eucalyptus, by which name it is also 

 known at Wilson's Promontory. At Twofold Bay and Berrima (Woolls) it passes as " Mountain 

 Ash " and in some other places still more perplexing names are bestowed on this tree. Hence it 

 seems best to adopt the name of " Yowut " for it, by which, according to Mr. Howitt, it is known 

 among the Gippsland-tribes. The specific appellation now offered is also a new one, inasmucli 

 as the original adjective "virgata" is very misleading, because only under very exceptional 

 circumstances is this usually tall timber-tree reduced to a virgate or twiggy state ; neither is 

 there anything streaked or striped about the stem to justify the designation virgate in an other 

 sense of the word. Moreover De Candolle and Sprengel attribute to Sieber's plant a conical lid 

 of the length of the calyx-tube, and such more frequently was also seen by Bentham, but this is 

 not in consonance with the ordinary state of E. Sieberiana as now here defined, and may apply to 

 a different species. 



