EUCALYPTUS OLEOSA. 



F. V. M., in Nederlandisk Kruidkundig Ajchief iv. 127 (1859) ; fragmenta phytographise Australiae ii. 56 (1860) ; 

 Bentham, flora Australiensis iii. 248 ; P. v. M., Report on the Forest-resources of Western Australia 11, pi. 12 ; 

 E. socialis, F. v. M., in Nederlandisk Xruidkundig Archief iv. 132; E. turbinata, Belir, in Nederlandisk 

 Kruidkundig Archief iv. 137. 



Shrubby or somewbat arborescent ; leaves scattered, narrow- or oblong-lanceolar, pointed, 

 sligbtly curved, of equal color on both sides and often pale- or grey-green ; lateral veins much 

 spreading, very subtle and rather close, the circumferential vein at some distance from the edge ; 

 oil-dots innumerable, often concealed ; umbels solitary axillary and lateral, on slightly compressed 

 and not very elongated or on even short stalks, bearing from 4 to 11 flowers ; stalklets usually 

 much shorter than the calyx ; lid hemispherical i7i its lower part, thence contracted into a broad- or 

 narrow-conical summit ; tube of the calyx semi-ovate, hardly as long as the lid and generally not 

 angular ; stamens aU fertile, before expansion flexuous and inflexed ; anthers roundish-ovate or 

 almost globular, opening by broad slits in their whole length ; style slender ; fruit small, truncate- 

 ovate or almost truncate-globular, oftener three- than four-celled ; valves at the base broad, thence 

 awlshaped, exserted ; rim flat, but narrow ; seeds without any appendage, the fertile broader than 

 the sterile seeds. 



In the desert-country from near the Murray -River and its lower tributaries (F. v. M.) 

 extending to Central- Australia (at least to the Finke-River, Revd. H. Kempe) and to the coast of 

 South- and West-Australia. 



It is this species, which forms a large ingredient of the " Mallee-scrub," constituting tall 

 bushes branched from the root and covering (more or less intermixed with E. uncinata, E. gracilis 

 and E. incrassata) wide particularly sandy tracts of arid inland-depressions of extratropic 

 Australia. In the ordinary bushy state E. oleosa exceeds seldom 15 feet in height. The bark of 

 aged plants gets corky, but comes off in patches (Tepper), while in younger plants the bark is 

 smooth and pale. The leaves are sometimes very shining, sometimes almost opaque ; their very 

 thin veins become often quite concealed by the cuticle ; the oil-glands are dark, very minute and 

 only in young foliage pellucid through the leaf. The leafstalks are of moderate length or in a 

 narrow-leaved variety (resembling E. angustissima) very short. The calyces are frequently pale- 

 colored, but sometimes brownish, particularly the tube ; the lid is never angular. The anthers 

 occur sometimes cordate or even broader than long, stUl never reniform, nor are their slits confluent 

 at the summit. The stigma is usually not dilated. The valves of the fruits are fragile, some- 

 what variable in length, but always narrow-pointed and for a long while or even permanently 

 coherent at the summit. 



In its ordinary state E. oleosa is easily enough distinguished from allied species, but some 

 aberrant forms occur, of some of which it is as yet diflScult to say, whether they are entitled to 

 specific rank. This accounts for the synonymy of this Eucalypt. It includes also E. cneorifolia 

 of De Candolle's prodromus iii. 220 and likewise of Bentham's flora Australiensis, so far as the 

 plant from the arid scrubby ridges of Kangaroo-Island (De Decr^s) is concerned, but not the 

 plant with rough calyx and kidneyshaped anthers from the mountains of New South "Wales, united 

 ■with it by De Candolle, and of which he gave a figure in his M^moire sur la famiUe des Myrtac^es, 

 pi. 9, which species is identical with E. stricta, as mentioned already under E. stellulata. 

 E. uncinata in comparison can at once be distinguished by the filaments sharply infracted before 

 expansion and not flexuous, by the anthers opening by almost terminal pores and by the shorter 



