EUCALYPTUS OBCORDATA. 



Turczaninow, in Bulletin de I'Acad^mie de St. Petersbourg, 1852, p. 416 ; E. platypus, Hooter, icones plantarum 

 849 (1852) ; Bentham, flora Australiensis iii. 234; E. nutans, F. v. M., fragmenta phytographiae Auetralise iii. 

 152. 



Shrubby or arborescent ; branchlets robust, not angular ; leaves scattered, short, obcordate- or 

 oval-roundish or broad-oval, of very thick consistence, equally green and shining on both sides, 

 often somewhat wavy and slightly crenulated at the margin, their lateral veins only moderately 

 spreading, neither prominent nor crowded, the circumferential vein at some distance from the edge 

 of the leaves ; oil-dots copious and rather transparent ; umbel-stalks long, axillary, solitary, broadly 

 Jlattened, mostly much recurved, bearing generally from 5 to 7 or sometimes less and occasionally 

 only 2 flowers ; stalklets none or very short ; tube of the calyx prominently angular, considerably 

 broader than the conic-cylindrical lid and about as long or very considerably shorter ; stamens all 

 fertile, filaments dark-red or pale, straight while in bud, anthers oblong, opening by parallel slits 

 longitudinally ; style about as long as the stamens : stigma somewhat dilated ; fruits rather large, 

 almost semiovate or truncate-ovate, attenuated at the base, lined with usually four sometimes keel- 

 like angles, 4- to 5- rarely 6-celled, rim narrowly prominent ; valves slightly sunk, deltoid and 

 short-acuminate ; seeds all without any appendage, the fertile seeds blunt-angled, dotted-streaked, 

 the sterile seeds mostly shorter and always narrower. 



From the northern extremity of Stirling's Eange extending to PhUlips's Range and to near 

 Bremer's Inlet, forming in many places almost impenetrable thickets ; Maxwell. 



A tall shrub or small tree, rising finally to 30 feet or perhaps even higher. Bark smooth, 

 greyish. Leaves conspicuously stalked, leatjiery-thick, 1 to 2^ inches long, verging occasionally 

 into a rhomboidal form, somewhat oblique especially at the generally blunt and sometimes 

 truncated or even retracted summit, often considerably broader than shown in the drawing, thus 

 even of greater width than length. Flowerstalks from 1 to nearly 2 inches long, from a third to 

 fiilly half an inch broad, flatly compressed, but slightly concave above and convex beneath, more 

 or less deflexed and thus often quite arched, in an early stage provided with two opposite bracts 

 of navicular-oblong form and of about \ inch length. Flower-stalklets, when present, sharply 

 angular. Lid suddenly expanded at the base, nowhere angular ; two of the angles of the calyx 

 frequently more strongly prominent. Filaments either of a saturated but rather dull-red or 

 yellowish-white. Anthers centrally fixed, pale-yellowish. Style slender. Ripe fruits i to | inch 

 long, only slightly contracted at the orifice ; their rim narrowly protruding beyond the summit- 

 line of the calyx-tube. Apex of the valves passing into the base of the style and thus the terminal 

 portion short-exserted. Fertile seeds not fully a line long ; some of the sterile seeds considerably 

 longer than the rest. 



This is the " Maalok " of the Aborigines, who must have bestowed that particular designation 

 on this Eucalypt for some obvious reason, be it for its odd appearance or the obstruction offered 

 by its thickets or the utility of its wood ; I am not acquainted with the meaning or derivation of 

 this aboriginal word. The foliage of this species, which is sure to yield oil copiously, reminds of 

 that of E. alpina, a species in other respects very diiferent. Tlie specific designations giveu 

 respectively by Sir William Hooker and by Turczaninow arose simultaneously, specimens having 

 become accessible to both from Drummond's fifth collection, to which this plant was supplied by 

 the late Mr. George Maxwell, whose worldly career came lately at a very venerable age suddenly 

 to its close, while he moved about to the last with an ardent and unchanged interest among the 



