EUCALYPTUS LARGIFLORENS. 



F. V. M., in the Transactions of the Victorian Institute i. 34 (1854) ; fragmenta phytographise Australiae ii. 58 ; 

 E. pendula, A. Cunningham, in Steudel's nomenelator botanicus p. 600 (1840) ; E. bicolor, A. Cunningham, in 

 Mitchell's Tropical Australia 390 (1848) ; F. v. M., in the Journal of the Linnean Society iii. 90; Bentham, 

 flora Australiensis iii. 214. 



Branchlets slender ; leaves scattered, elongated- or very narrow-Ian ceolar, rather straight or 

 slightly sickleshaised, of thin consistence, gradually narrowed into a comparatively short stalk, 

 generally pale and dull-green on both sides ; lateral veins extremchj fine, diverging at a very acute 

 angle or not very spreading nor quite close, the circumferential vein somewhat removed from the 

 edge ; oil-glands numerous, often transparent ; umbels in lateral or terminal short jmnicles, with 

 3-8 flowers in each ; calyces small, on stalklets of usually less length ; lid double, the inner one 

 hemispherical or slightly pyramidal, hardly half as long as the almost obconical-semiovate scarcely 

 angular tube, the outer lid when present much smaller and slightly elevated ; stamens all fertile, 

 unless some of the outer imperfect, inflexed before expansion ; anthers globular, opening by lateral 

 pores; style very short; stigma hardly dilated ; fruit very small, truncate-ovate or slightly bell- 

 shaped, 3- or oftener 4-celled ; the rim rather narrow, the valves very short, convergent and quite 

 enclosed, but not distant from the rim ; seeds minute, without appendages. 



From St. Vincent's Gulf and the Murray-River and its lower tributaries through Eastern 

 Australia and particularly its inland-tracts to Carpentaria, at least as far as the Flinders- and 

 Gilbert-Rivers, but reaching also in some places the coast-tracts. 



A tree, attaining in desert-regions only a height of about 30 feet or remaining more or less 

 shrubby, but in literal regions rising to about 90 feet, passing as one of the " Box-trees," occupying 

 either moist places or banks of watercourses or depressions in the Mallee-scrub. Bark persistent 

 in the ordinary state of this species on the branches as well as on the stem, blackish-grey, rough 

 and hard. Branches more or less drooping, sometimes as much so as those of the Weeping Willow. 

 Leaves occasionally a span long, but usually rather short, — in trees from the east-coast, which 

 seem as a variety to belong to this species, also vivid-green and somewhat shining. Stalks of the 

 umbels neither elongated nor dilatated. Stalklets sometimes extremely short. Outer lid not 

 always independently developed or very fugacious or consolidated with the inner one. Filaments 

 in bud, irrespective of their sudden infraction, also flexuous, cream-colored as in most congeners 

 or occasionally crimson ; the anthers of the outer filaments sometimes diminutive or almost 

 obliterated, or rarely a few of them enlarged and deformed. Valves exceptionally 5. 



This is not the only instance of tall eastern species extending far into the western interior 

 and there becoming dwarfed in growth, E. paniculata and E. hemiphloia being other examples in 

 this respect. 



Tlie supposed tall variety from the Queensland coast-districts, with longer leaves of more 

 saturated and rather shining green, sheds the outer layers of its bark completely, according to a 

 note of Mr. Dallachy, but seems not specifically different. Similar instances are well known in 

 regard to the coloration of the foliage of Tecoma australis, Carissa Brownii, Gcijera salicifolia and 

 Jasminum simplicifolium, which produce dark-grecu sliining leaves in humid Ibrcst-rcgious, but 

 assume gradually a pale and dull hue as these plants advance towards the arid interior. The 

 lamellar secession of the bark in trees of this species in coast-forest and its persistence in dry open 

 regions finds a repetition under similar circumstances in E. amygdalina and several other 

 coDgeners. The stalklets in this variety from the troi)ical coast are ratlier longer and the lid 



