EUCALYPTUS MELLIODOEA. 



Allan Cunningham, in Walpers repertorium botanices systematicse ii. 924 (1843) ; Bentham, flora Australiensis 

 iii. 210 ; F. v. M., Introduction to Botanic TeaoHngs, 15, fig. vii. 



The honey-scented Eucalypt or Yellow Box-tree. 



Leaves scattered, narrow lanceolar or somewhat sickleshaped, sometimes verging into an 

 oblong or oval form, not very long, mostly of a dull-green on both pages, seldom shining ; their 

 lateral veins neither very spreading nor very numerous nor usually prominent, the marginal vein 

 distinctly removed from the edge ; oil-dots rather copious, but many concealed ; umbels axillary 

 or lateral and solitary or terminal and often partly paniculate, on short slender stalks, usually 

 with from 4 to 7, seldom 3 or 8, small flowers ; calyx on a thin stalklet ; its tube semiovate or 

 broadly obverse-conical, nearly as long as or sometimes distinctly longer than the semiglobular- 

 conical blunt or somewhat acute lid; outer stamens destitute of anthers ; filaments pale; anthers 

 very minute, nearly as broad as long, upwards dilated, opening near the summit with pores or 

 short slits ; stigma much dilated ; fruit truncate-semiovate, small, not angular, 5- to 6- or sometimes 

 4-celled ; rim not strongly compressed, comparatively broad or ascendant ; placental axis hardly 

 twice as long as broad ; valves very short, quite enclosed ; seeds very small, without any expanding 

 membrane. 



Chiefly on ridges, from the Pyrenees and Loddon extending widely south- and eastward 

 through the colony of Victoria and far into New South Wales, reaching New England and the 

 upper tributaries of the Darling-Eiver northward, with us chiefly occurring in the Silurian 

 formation, but also descending into valleys of the pleistocene age and even to the coastlands, but 

 according to Mr. "Wilkinson occurring also in the granitic and Devonian formation, never 

 ascending to high elevations. 



The " Dargan " of the Gippsland aboriginal tribes. 



A middle-sized tree, but exceptionally attaining a height of about 250 feet (Howitt, Faick) 

 and a basal stem-diameter of 8 feet (Eobinson). Bark outside brownish-grey, inside yellowish or 

 sometimes almost gamboge-color when first removed (Wilkinson), more or less persistent on the 

 stem, the persistent portion^Eick and slightly fibrous, often contorted and turned about zig-zag 

 in all manners of ways (Eobinson). Branches often to a large extent or entirely smooth. Timber 

 of a yellowish color and when dry extremely hard, very durable and heavy, also of remarkable 

 toughness, but difficult to work and as a rule not fissile ; in texture much like that of E. rostrata ; 

 much utilized for spokes, rollers, heavy framework and for the best of naves, cogs and treenails, 

 also for rougher kinds of work such as telegraph- and fence-posts, rails and slabs. It cannot well 

 be sawn into planks on account of the frequent occurrence of broad perpendicular slits or cracks 

 intervening between the layers, thus apt also to shell concentrically. In splitting, to use 

 Mr. Hewitt's words, it is necessary to back it ofi', as it will not quarter. Excellent for fuel. The 

 specific gravity of fully seasoned wood varies from about 0-966 to 1-125, or 60 to 70 lbs. per cubic 

 foot. Branches often pendulous, the branchlets mostly very slender. Stalklets of flowers and 

 fruits not seldom longer than exhibited in the illustration. 



The tree will live on poor soil, but it is not of particularly quick growth. It bore since very 

 many years the name of " Yellow Box," under which appellation it was noted already in 

 Dr. Leichhardt's collection in 1843. Long ago in my official report to the Victorian Parliament, 

 submitted in 1869, I pointed out, that a ton of fresh branches and leaves of E. meUiodora would 



