EUCALYPTUS STKLLULATA. 



The shrubby highland-state of E. stellulata is in general aspect so similar to E. stricta, that 

 Allan Cunningham did not draw any distinctions between the two, and published them as one 

 under the name of E. microphylla (in Field's Geographical Memoirs on New South Wales 350, 

 anno 1825). G. Don, who changed the name to E. Cunninghami (General System of Dichla- 

 mydeous Plants ii. 821) simply followed in this view of their identity. Both kinds grow inter- 

 mixed on the summits of the Blue Mountains, in both the venation is often reduced to extreme 

 fineness. The differences of E. stricta consist in the aged bark not being stringy, diverging 

 veins of the leaves, fewer flowers in the umbels on longer stalklets and of larger size, granular- 

 routfh calyces larger usually 4-celled fruits with a prominent edge around the orifice. 



It may here however be observed cursorily, that I comprehend as E. stricta a plant of the 

 series Eenantherfe, precisely agreeing, so far as fruit-specimens are concerned, with original 

 specimens of Sieber's collection (No. 472), obtained from Dr. Sonder of Hamburg, although 

 Bentham, perhaps solely from examination of undeveloped flowerbuds, places E. stricta among 

 the Micrantherre. It is confined to New South Wales and deliglits in the higher, cool and 

 moist regions of mountains, braving some frost, and as may be imagined from its frequent 

 exposure to boisterous weather, it is startlingly playful in its variability. Thus it includes 

 E. cneorifolia of De Candolle's m^moire sur la famille des myrtacSes, pi. 9, but only tlie eastern 

 plant so named in De Candolle's pirodromus iii. 220, and not the one from the arid dry ridges 

 of I'ile Decr^s or Kangaroo-Island, which seems referable to E. oleosa among Parallelantherse. 

 To E. stricta belongs furthermore E. rigida of Sieber's collections, No. 473, although united by 

 Bentham with E. obtusiflora, but the latter according to leaves from the original specimen kept at 

 Geneva and forwarded to me by Monsieur Alphonse De Candolle proves it completely distinct 

 from E. rigida. E. stricta is so variable, that Sieber distributed a variety of it under a third 

 name, viz., E. virgata, as is now found from insisection of an authentic specimen (though in bud 

 only) sent recently to me by Dr. Henri van Heurck of Antwerp. Bentham united this with 

 the tall species, to which I have given the appellation of E. Sieberiana, whereas the genuine E. 

 virgata was most likely gathered with the other varieties of E. stricta on the summit of the Blue 

 Mountains, where with a dwarf state of E. stellulata it forms thickets of rigid strict-branched 

 virgate buslies. At a first glance any collector would deem B. virgata very distinct, more par- 

 ticularly on account of the much compressed and two-edged stalks of the umbels, as already 

 noticed in SprengeFs curte posteriores 195 ; but a still more remarkable form, widely aberrant 

 from the original type, was discovered by Mr. Kirton on the crests of high barren ranges towards 

 Bulli, which variety seemed so very distinct, that it was actually described as a new species 

 under the name of E. Luehmanniana (fragmenta phytographiae Australise xi. 38) with not 

 the slightest anticipation at the time, that any additional material would establish a transit to 

 E. stricta, as has been the case since ; the leaves of the variety Luehmanniana are long and 

 comparatively broad, the umbel-stalks are wedgeshaped-dilated and as well as the branchlets and 

 calyces tinged with a bluish-white bloom, the flowers and fruits are much larger, the lids are 

 gradually long-pointed and the number of valves is often increased to 5 or 6. 



Explanation of Analytic Details. — 1, unexpanded flower, the lid lifted ; 2, longitudinal section of an 

 unexpanded flower ; 3, some stamens in situ ; 4 and 5, front- and back -view of an anther with part of its 

 filament ; 6, style and stigma ; 7 and 8, transverse and longitudinal sections of a fruit ; 9 and 10, fertile and sterile 

 seeds ; 11, portion of a leaf ; all magnified, but to various extent. 



