EUCAITPTUS PAUCIFLORA. 



■Mr. G. W. Eobinson observes, that the timber is comparatively soft, thus easy to cut, and of a 

 lighter color than that of most Eucalypts, also that it splits fairly, but cannot readily be obtained 

 in great lengths ; it is rather brittle, short in grain and cannot be used underground, but is 

 excellent for fuel ; it is in use also for log-fences. 



The principal interest of this species concentrates in its quality to cope with rather severe 

 frosts ; indeed together with E. Gunnii it constitutes miniature-forests up to 6,500 feet in our 

 Alps, growing close to glaciers, which on the shade-sides of glens do not wholly melt in our 

 latitudes, whenever situated over 6,000 feet high, though in the cooler latitudes of Tasmania the 

 limit of eternal snow descends about 1,000 feet lower, it being understood only in the wide 

 crevices or chasms of rocks or in other places, where the sun cannot exercise any direct effect. 

 Thus the bare crests of our Alps may be free of snow in the height of summer even at nearly 

 7,000 feet, and we have therefore nowhere in Australia an absolute permanent snow-line in the 

 strict sense of the word. 



In nature E. pauciflora is easily recognized by the smooth whiteness of its stem to near the 

 ground, combined with the characteristic of its almost parallel-veined leaves and the size and 

 shapie of its flowers. Among the Renanthera3 only E. stellulata exhibits the peculiar venation of 

 the leaves of E. pauciflora, several of the veins arising together from the base ; it is however a 

 much smaller tree, which does not ascend fully so high into alpine regions, and which moreover is 

 readily recognized by its mostly shorter leaves, the smallness of its flowers, slender calyces with 

 conical lids and smaller fruits ; moreover its bark is semipersistent. Some resemblance to 

 E. Sieberiana is also obvious, but that species belongs really to the Heterostemones (or Hemian- 

 therse), shows no perfect decortication of the upper layers of the bark, has the stomata not 

 absolutely isogenous, the leaf-veins evidently more spreading and less prominent and not several 

 basal veins confluent. In their fruits however E. pauciflora and E. Sieberiana are much alike. 



Although the name of E. coriacea, bestowed on this species by Allan Cunningham, was 

 perhaps given soon after his arrival in New South Wales (1816), yet Sieber, who gathered this 

 species in 1823, must also have named it then already or soon subsequently, for it appeared on his 

 authority in Sprengel's curee posteriores already as E. pauciflora in 1827, therefore sixteen years 

 before the name given by Cunningham became established ; thus Sieber's appellation clearly takes 

 precedence under the rules of priority. Though the designation of E. pauciflora does not apply so 

 well to the generality of the forms of this species as the name of E. coriacea, yet in comparison to 

 paniculate species it is applicable enough. E. procera (Dehuhardt, Rivista Napolitana, i. 174), 

 according to the published diagnosis in Walpers repertorium botanices systematicaB ii. 164, can 

 only be referred to E. pauciflora. 



Explanation of Analytic Details. — 1, longitudinal section of an unexpanded flower; 2 and 3, front- and 

 back-view of an anther with part of the filament ; 4, stamens in situ ; 5, pistil ; 6 and 7, longitudinal and transverse 

 section of fruit ; 8 and 9, sterile and fertile seeds ; 10, portion of a leaf ; all magnified, but to a various extent. 



