EUCALYPTUS PILULAEIS. 



Smith, in the Transactions of the Linnean Society iii. 284 (1797), according to Bentham, flora Australiensis iii. 208 ; 

 Eippist, in F. M. fragmenta phytographiEe Au3trali89 ii. 172; E. persioifolia, OandoUe, prodromus systematis 

 naturalis regni vegetabilis iii. 217, partim; E. semicorticata, F. M., in the Journal of the Proceedings of the 

 Linnean Society iii. 86. 



The " BlackbutUree." 



Finally tall ; branchlets conspicuously angular ; leaves scattered, narrow- or sickleshaped- 

 lanceolar, rather more shining above than below ; their lateral veins very subtle and numerous, 

 moderately spreading, the circumferential vein somewhat removed from the margin of the leaf ; 

 oil-dots concealed ; umbels mostly axillary and solitary or a few terminal and aggregated, bearing 

 from 4 to 16 flowers ; stalk strongly compressed; stalklets rather thick, angular, nearly as long as 

 the calyx or variously shorter ; lid below hemispherical or broadly conical, attenuated into an acute 

 summit, slightly longer or almost shorter than the semiovate tube of the calyx, the latter not 

 angular ; stamens all fertile, inflexed before expansion ; anthers kidneyshaped, opening by diver- 

 gent slits ; stigma not dilated ; fruit semiovate or almost truncate-ovate, 3- or oftener 4- rarely 

 6-celled ; valves deltoid, inserted slightly below the broadish somewhat flat or inward descending 

 rim ; sterile seeds mostly not much narrower than the fertile seeds, all without appendage. 



In wooded country from Eastern Gippsland to Southern Queensland, advancing into mountain- 

 regions, but confined to the littoral slopes. 



A tree, attaining under favorable circumstances a height of 300 feet and a stem-circumference 

 of 45 feet (Camara, Kirton), but as a rule of much less dimension. Eough bark covering the 

 lower part of the stem and sometimes persisting even to the branches, blackish-grey outside, 

 somewhat fibrous and brownish inside, traversed according to Dr. Beckler by cross-fibres ; bark 

 of the branches and also sometimes of the upper portion of the stem smooth, grey or whitish. 

 Timber excellent for general purposes, used largely for building, furnishing material for flooring- 

 boards and superior shingles, also utilized for telegraph-poles and railway-sleepers (WooUs, Kirton). 



The systematic name for this species is not happily chosen, and seems to have been intended 

 originally by Sir James Smith for that species, which Mr. Kippist and Mr. Bentham from 

 inspection of Smith's collections consider to be E. piperita ; but the fruit-bunches depicted under 

 that name by Surgeon-General John White in his " Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales " 

 belong, I should think, to the species now adopted as E. pilularis, although the fruits of the latter 

 never approach to a pilular form like those of the modern B. piperita ; Smith therefore quotes in 

 the Transactions of the Linnean Society from White's figure cautiously the leaves only for 

 E. piperita ; to the confusion about the last mentioned species is added from the commencement 

 by Dr. White, attributing at page 226 to his E. piperita a bark " very smooth like that of a 

 poplar." The compressed flowerstalks, mentioned particularly in the description of E. piperita 

 (in the Linnean Transactions iii. p. 286, and for which further should be referred to Smith's 

 Botany of New Holland, p. 42) would also indicate E. pilularis as now perhaps wrongly defined, 

 whereas the globular fruit of E. pilularis, as aptly described in the Linnean Transactions of 1797, 

 would apply not to that species as now understood, but to the E. piperita of the present day. I 

 was tempted to transpose the names of the two species, though sanctioned by high authority (as 

 Du Eoi did under similar circumstances with Pinus picea and P. Abies), so that the species 

 with the pillshaped fruits might at once be remembered by its adjective name ; but I have left the 

 nomenclature for the present as it is, more especially as the now acknpwledged E. pilularis is not 



