EUCALYPTUS MINIATA. 



Cunningham, in Walpers repertorium botanices systematiese ii. 925 (1843) ; F. v. M., fragmenta phytographiie 

 Australise xi. 42; Bentham, flora Ausiraliensis iii. 228; E. aurantiaca, F. v. M. in the Journal of the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Linnean Society iii. 91. • 



Finally tall ; hranchlets with Jlower stalks and calyces often covered with a whitish bloom ; 

 leaves scattered, of rather thin consistence, oblique-lanceolar or somewhat sickleshaped, rarely 

 almost oval, not shining on either side, slightly paler beneath ; their lateral veins very subtle, 

 pennately spreading and rather copious, the circumferential vein slightly or hardly removed from 

 the edge of the leaf ; oil-dots numerous, but very minute and much concealed ; umbels axillary 

 or lateral, solitary, on thick cylindrical or somewhat compressed stalks, bearing 6 to 7 flowers ; 

 stalklets none or exceedingly short ; calyx furrowed or streaked with several longitudinal promi- 

 nent angles, the tube topshaped or obconical and upwards dilated, slightly or doubly longer than 

 the pyramidal- or blunt-hemispheric lid ; stamens all fertile, inflexed before expansion, _/?/aMew<s 

 orange-colored, anthers ellipsoid-oval with dorsally broadish connective, opening with parallel 

 slits ; style nearly as long as the stamens ; stigma not dilated ; fruit very large, oval-urnshaped, 

 ridged by 8 to \Q lorimary prominent angles, 3- to 4-celled ; valves short, deeply enclosed ; fertile 

 seeds large, without any appendicular membrane ; sterile seeds comparatively small and partly 

 very narrow. 



From the Palmer-River (T. Gulliver) and Lynd-River (Leichhardt) around the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria to Arnhem's Land, reaching the Victoria-Eiver (F. v. M.) and Port Darwin (Schultz), 

 extending westward to York-Sound (Cunningham), occurring on somewhat sandy scrub-lands and 

 also on stony ridges and table-lands. 



A tree, attaining a height of 70 feet and perhaps more ; stem-diameter known to reach 2 feet. 

 Persistent portion of the bark lamellar, brittle, partly glittering, interwoven with woody ramifi- 

 cations, grey-brownish or yellowish outside, covering the stem but not the branches, the bark of 

 the latter being outside smooth and whitish. Branchlets not manifestly angular and rather thin. 

 Leaves varying in length from 2 to 5 inches and in breadth from ■!• to 1-|- inches. Flowerstalks 

 stout, f to 1^ inches long. Calyces measuring from 5 to 10 lines in length, when ready to burst 

 into flower. Fruits attaining a length of 2 inches, more or less wrinkled between the primary 

 angles. Fertile seeds 2-J to 4 lines long, angular and often truncated, convex on the outer face, 

 edged around the large circular hilum, thence radiating-streaked to the acute margin of the seed ; 

 testa neither much shining nor distinctly reticulated ; sterile seeds I to H lines long, mostly only 

 between ^ and f line broad. 



In habit E. miniata approaches nearest to E. phoenicea, whose companion it is in Arnhem's 

 Land and around the Gulf of Carpentaria, agreeing with it much in its laminated, friable, easily 

 separable bark, which is however not persistent on the main branches, also more grey and less 

 brown-yellowish ontside ; it accords furthermore with E. phoenicea in the brilliancy of its flowers, 

 thus forming quite an ornament in the landscape, the name of the species being derived from the 

 color of the filaments like that of red lead. The bark contains more woody ramifications than 

 that of E. phoenicea, but likewise reminds in external appearance and in fracture much of mica- 

 scliist, thus indicating for both these trees in the cortical system a peculiar section, that of tlie 

 Lepidophloia?, to which also E. peltata belongs. E. minia,ta differs from E. phoenicea in taller 

 stature, in its branchlets, flowerstalks and calyces being tinged wi(h a wliitish bloom, in generally 

 broader leaves with less stomata above than below, in umbels with less flowers, in the absence of 



