EUCALYPTUS POLYANTHEMA. 



E. polyanthemos, Sehauer, inWalpers repertorium botanioes systematicse ii. 924 (1843) ; Bentham, flora Auatraliensis 

 iii. 214 ; WooUs, contribution to the flora of Australia 236. 



The "■ Den-tree." 



Branchlets very slender ; leaves scattered, on rather long stalks, orbicular- or broad-ovate or 

 roundish, of an almost ashy-hue or dull-greenish, occasionally verging into an oval-lanceolar form ; 

 primary veins considerahly spreading, the circumferential veins distinctly removed from the edge ; 

 umbels paniculate and mostly terminal ; flowers in each umbel very few, usually of rather small 

 size and on very short stalklets ; tube of the calyx truncate-ovate, doubly or thrice longer and 

 also broader than the deisressed- or pyramidal-hemispherical faintly pointed lid ; stamens much 

 inflesed while unexpanded ; outer stamens sterile ; fertile anthers truncated, opening by terminal 

 pores ; stigma somewhat dilated ; fruits rather small, semiovate, with a narrow compressed fragile 

 occasionally somewhat indented margin, 3- or 4-celled or rarely 5-celled ; valves enclosed, very 

 short ; seeds without any appendage. 



On dry ridges and hills or undulatory country from the vicinity of Port Phillip north-westward 

 to the Pyrenees, eastward to the Gippsland-Lakes and the Genoa (F. v. M.) ; northward to the 

 tributaries of the Darling-River, advancing thence to the coast-districts of New South Wales, thus 

 occurring also near Port Jackson (at Liverpool, Woolls). 



A middle-sized tree ; exceptionally about 250 feet high (in the Ovens-Ranges, Falck), called 

 " Den " by the Gippsland-natives (Howitt), but Red Box-tree by our colonists, on account of the 

 reddish tinge of its wood, occasionally also passing among the woodmen as Grey or Bastard- 

 Box-tree. Bark persistent as well on the branches as on the stem (unless the upper ramifications 

 or rarely also the lower are smooth from outer decortication), slightly furrowed, grey outside. 

 Wood close-grained and twisted, very tough and so hard, as to have given rise to the name of 

 Lignum Vitee for it in some regions of New South Wales (Woolls). Leaves sometimes acuminated, 

 but generally those of the young saplings and of the aged tree not very different in shape. Veins 

 not very crowded, nor as a rule very prominent. Oil-glands copiously visible in young leaves, 

 becoming much concealed or evanescent at last. Inflorescence also not rarely participating in 

 the grey bloom of the foliage. Lid double in early stage, the outer minute and fugacious. 



The specific name is derived from tlie comparative copiousness of the flowers. 



Great lastingness is attributed to the wood, though the stems become often hollow in age, 

 and thus afibrd not readily timber of large dimensions. The wood is much sought for cogs, naves 

 and felloes ; it is also much in demand for props of shafts in mines ; for fuel it is unsurpassed. 

 According to Mr. J. Smith it is this species, which braved the severest winters at Kew-Gardeu near 

 London, sheltered merely by a wall. 



As regards its specific affinities E. polyanthema comes very near to E. melliodora, with which 

 it agrees in the remarkable dehiscence of the anthers by terminal pores ; but it recedes in the 

 bark not being yellowish inside, but softer, more fibrous and outside rather more grey, iu the 

 reddish color of the wood, in the broader and more generally greyish leaves, in ratlicr sliorter 

 stalklets of the "flowers, smaller lids of the calyx, more pauiculated flowers, less dilated stigma, 

 fruits less distinctly contracted at the orifice, with a narrower less firm and less distinctly annular 

 rim and generally lesser number of valves and cells. B(/tli (jcc.iir in some places promiscuously 

 and seem to preserve under the same circumstances of soil and climate each their distinctive 



