EUCALYPTUS SETOSA. 



Schauer, in Walpers repertorium botanices systematicse ii. 926 (1843) ; F. v. M., fragmenta phytographise 

 Australia iii. 132 ; Bentham, flora Australiensis iii. 254. 



Arborescent ; leaves opposite, ovate- or roundish-cordate, sessile, somewhat rough, of pale and 

 dull color on both sides and of rather thin consistence ; their primary lateral veins somewhat 

 distant, very spreading and but slightly prominent, the circumferential vein irregular and not 

 much removed from the edge ; oil-dots obliterated ; panicles terminal, as well as the branchlets 

 beset with bristly brownish hairs and also glandular-rough ; umbels with very few or several 

 flowers ; stalklets slender, mostly longer than the almost pearshaped calyx ; lid depressed- 

 hemispherical, slightly or conically pointed, seceding by an irregular transverse line, much shorter 

 and less wide than the tube ; stamens all fertile, inflesed before expansion ; anthers oblong-oval, 

 opening by longitudinal parallel slits ; style short ; stigma not dilated ; fruits large, globular- 

 ovate and truncated, somewhat urnshaped, not angular, 3- to 4-celled ; rim descending ; valves 

 deeply enclosed, deltoid ; fertile seeds provided with a large terminal membranous appendage, 

 sterile seeds much smaller and narrow. 



On the islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria (R. Brown, Henue), also on the mainland around 

 the Gulf (F. V. M.), extending south-eastward at least as far as Mount Elliot (Fitzalan). 



A low spreading tree, generally occurring on fertile soil. Bark, according to a note of 

 Mr. Fitzalan, stringy, thus persistent as in other Bloodwood-trees, to which series this species 

 belongs. Some few of the leaves occasionally scattered. Transparent duets only visible in the young 

 leaves and tlieu only as very minute irregular pores and not as roundish oil-dots ; hence the foliage 

 (at least when dry) inodorous. Stalklets of the umbels chiefly opposite. Lid rather tearing ofi' 

 irregularly and tardily, than dropping suddenly and completely by a clear sutural dehiscence, 

 remaining often for a while attached during the expansion of the flowers to one side of the orifice 

 of the calyx-tube, as in other Bloodwood-trees. Fruits on quite slender stalklets, pale and not 

 shining outside, very blunt at the base ; placentas prominent, near the summit of the septa. Fertile 

 seeds rather large, black-brown and shining, their appendage pale- or dark-brown. Characteristics 

 of the seedlings as yet unobserved. R. Brown noted a smooth ash-grey bark ; unless his note 

 applies to E. aspera, which is known to possess such a bark, it would appear, that the cortical 

 characters of E. setosa are variable, though in a hurried collecting excursion the two trees may 

 possibly not have been recognized in their distinctness by the illustrious naturalist of Flinders's 

 expedition. 



E. aspera approaches this species in the roughness of the branchlets and much in foliage, 

 though its leaves are generally not so large and comparatively not so broad ; but the smooth calyces 

 with polished lid, the small fruits with sharp edge and the seeds not provided with appendages 

 bring that species into much closer contact with E. clavigera and also with E. ferruginea, except 

 in the size of the fruit. 



The resemblance of E. setosa to species of the genus Angophora is most striking, especially 

 on account of the reddish- or dark-brown stiff' sliort hairs, which are most copiously developed on 

 the Ijranclilets and inflorescence ; this renders their similarity in habit complete. Indeed, as 

 pointed out in the article on the E. tctragona, the only difference l)etween the genera Eucnlyptus 

 and Angojiiiora consists in the calycine lid of the former being re])laced by the true petals of 

 the latter. 



