EUCALYPTUS PUNCTATA. 



De Candolle, prodromus syslematis naturalia regni vegetatilis iii. 217 (1828) ; Memoire gur la famille dea myrta- 

 eees t. 4; E. Stuartiana, var. longifolia, Bentham, flora Australienaia iii. 244 partly. 



Finally tall ; branchlets robust and very angular ; leaves scattered, elongate- or sictleshaped- 

 lanceolar, of thin consistence, beneath slightly paler and there not shining ; the lateral veins 

 numerous, very subtle and much spreading, the circumferential vein close to the edge ; oil-dots 

 numerous, imperfectly transparent ; umbels axillary and solitary or at the summit of the 

 branchlets pianiculated ; their stalks broad and strongly compressed, bearing generally from 3 to 

 10 flowers ; tube of the calyx almost semiovate or nearly hemisjDherical, merging gradually into an 

 angnalar rather thick stalklet of about the same or greater or lesser length ; lid semiovate-conical, 

 as long as the tube or somewhat longer ; stamens all fertile, inflexed before expansion ; anthers 

 almost oblong, but upwards broader, opening with longitudinal parallel slits ; stigma not or 

 hardly broader than the style ; fruit nearly semiovate, 3- or oftener 4- rarely 5-celled, not large 

 nor angular, rim fatally rather broadish, flat or convex ; valves short, deltoid, at last exserted or 

 convergent from the rim ; seeds all without appendage, the sterile seeds much smaller, but mostly 

 not very narrow. 



Known from the vicinity of Port Jackson to the lower portion of the Blue Mountains and to 

 Berrima (Woolls), thence to the McLeay-Eiver ; but the precise southern and northern range of 

 this species as yet unascertained. 



A tree with the spreading habit of E. tereticornis, growing mostly in dry and rocky places, 

 attaining a height of 100 feet or even more, called "Leather-jacket" by the colonists and also 

 " Hickory-Eucalypt." The aged bark becomes rough and dark, but most of the outer bark is not 

 persistent, hence the Eevd. Dr. Woolls places this species now in the series of Leiophloiee 

 (Lectures on the Vegetable Kingdom 118), but kept it formerly among the Hemiphloite. The 

 wood is tough, pale reddish-brown, extremely durable, hard, close-grained, difficult to split, and 

 in use for fence-posts, railway-sleepers, wheelwrights' work and many rough building-purposes 

 even in naval architecture ; it is durable under ground, though not equal in value to the wood of 

 Ironbark-trees ; it affords also superior fuel. 



Leaves exceptionally verging into an oval form, their upper page of a slightly oily lustre. 

 Flowers occasionally only two together. Umbel stalks 3-10 lines long. Lid generally shining and 

 smooth. Lower portion of filaments flexuous before expansion. Anthers versatile, dorsifixed. 

 Style flexuous. Fruits exceptionally devoid of stalklets ; rim of the young fruit narrow. Seed- 

 lings, according to Dr. Woolls, smooth with slender stems, mostly scattered leaves, the latter 

 elongate- or narrow-lanceolar, paler beneath, their stalks short but distinctly developed. 



This tree exudes a reddish Kino. It flowers from March till June. The foliage produces 

 occasionally Melitose-Manna. The " Leather-jacket," included by Bentham in E. resinifera, is 

 E. punctata ; it differs from the former in its extensively smooth not fibrous bark, less deep- 

 colored wood, rather thinner leaves, more visible oil-dots, partially paniculated flowers, shorter 

 and less attenuated lid, more depressed fruit-rim and shorter and less pointed valves. E. punctata 

 verges also very close to E. saligna, from which it is best kept apart by its darker colored bark of 

 less smoothness and more leathery texture, its greater tendency to a paniculate inflorescence, 

 larger stalklets, more elongated lid and broader fruit-rini. From E. Stuartiana it is widely 

 distant already in its leaves not of equal color on l)oth sides with a different venation, besides in 



