EUCALYPTUS GRACILIS. 



F. V. M., in the Transaotiona of the Victorian Institute i. 35 (1854) ; Miquel in Nederlandisk Kruitkundig Archiev 

 iy. 124 ; P. M., fragmenta phy tographiae Australias ii. 55 ; Bentham, flora Australiensis iii. 211 ; E. calycogona 

 et E. celastroides, Turczaninow in Melanges biologiques tires du Bulletin physico-matMmatique de I'acadlmie 

 imperiale des sciences de St. Petersbourg, tome i. 417. 



Shrubby or somewhat arborescent ; leaves scattered, on rather short stalks, narrow- or almost 

 linear-lanceolar, not very long nor very inequilateral, slightly curved, of equal color and shining 

 on both sides, their veins extremely subtle or hardly visible, not very spreading, the circumferential 

 vein somewhat removed from the margin of the leaf ; oil-dots often dark and their transparency 

 concealed ; umbels axillary and solitary or some few terminal and almost paniculated, on thin and 

 rather short stalks, with usually 4—8 comparatively small flowers ; tube of the calyx obconical, lined 

 with 3—5 longitudinal angles, attenuated into a usually very short stalklet, considerably longer 

 than the hemispherical or pyramidal-conical lid ; outer stamens sterile, all the filaments crisped 

 and strongly inflexed before expansion ; anthers very minute, roundish or verging into a kidneyshaped 

 form, opening with lateral pores ; stigma hardly dilated ; fruit rather small, semiellipsoid or 

 somewhat obconical or slightly urnshaped, faintly angular, 3- or oftener 4-celled ; rim thin ; 

 valves deltoid, enclosed; seeds without appendage, the sterile much smaller than the fertile seeds. 



From the Mallee-country on the Eivers Murray and Darling and their lower tributaries to 

 South-West Australia, particularly in sandy but also in clayey and calcareous soil. Several stems 

 usually from one root, flowering occasionally at a height of about 6 feet, but in the course of years 

 rising finally to 25 feet. Bark from the secession of the outside layers smooth and almost 

 silvery-grey or whitish. Leaves, like those of most Eucalypts, terminated gradually into a narrow 

 pointed apex. Calyces shining. Sterile filaments much exceeding the length of most of the 

 fertile stamens. Style short. Fruits occasionally semiovate ; their valvular summit always flat. 

 Sterile seeds extremely minute. 



The exact northern limits of this species have as yet nowhere been ascertained. It forms 

 with E. incrassata, E. dumosa, E. uncinata, E. oleosa and E. paniculata the extensive " Mallee- 

 scrubs " of the extratropical and perhaps Central Australian desert-country, reaching in South- 

 and also West-Australia close to the coast, where however some additional congeners enter into 

 the constitution of the Mallee-vegetation, while in South-East Australia E. Behriana, E. largi- 

 florens and E. corynocalyx may become interspersed. 



Either as a variety or perhaps even as a species can be distinguished from E. gracilis an 

 Eucalyptus gathered by the lamented late Monsieur A. Thozet in his last botanical journey to 

 Expedition-Eange, during which' he became a victim of the paludal fever, to which this excellent 

 man so sadly succumbed. This Eucalyptus, which should bear his name, can be distinguished by 

 its longer leaves, narrow-ellipsoid flowerbuds, smaller, not or less conspicuously angular calyces 

 and also smaller and particularly narrower fruit, irrespective of the size of the tree, which rises to 

 a height of 60 feet, according to Mr. E. Bowman and Mr. P. O'Shanesy, who noticed it near the 

 Mackenzie- and Comet-Eiver. 



E. ochrophloia (F. v. M., fragmenta phytographise Australiae ix. 36) is removed from E. gracilis 

 on account of its larger leaves with rather prominent veins and less conspicuous oil-dots, its larger 

 flowers, more pointed lid, fruits of larger size and more tapering into an elongated stalklet, also 

 its outside yellowish bark, which gave rise to its odd vernacular appellation " Yellow-Jacket," by 

 which it is known from the Darling- and Lachlan-Eivers to the Paroo and Warrego. 



