EUCALYPTUS AMTGDALINA. 



often a comparatively dwarf tree, with outside rough, inside tough somewhat fibrous bark, which 

 remains more or less persistent on the stem and even lower branches ; under such conditions the 

 species is called a " Peppermint-tree " in Victoria and Tasmania and a " Messmate-tree " in some 

 tracts of New South Wales. (Vide WooUs, Lectures on the Vegetable Kingdom, p. 121.) 



The bark, when it persists, is however much more solid than that of E. macrorrhyncha and 

 E. obliqua, offering a transit of the Pachyphloiee to Rhytiphloise. On account of the toughness 

 of the inner bark the natives of G-ippsland have given to this tree the name of " Wangara," 

 meaning literally translated "Bark strong" (Howitt). The stems of young seedlings or of 

 sprouts from stumps are thin, somewhat warty- or glandular-rough, not angular : their leaves are 

 opposite, sessile, narrow oblong- or oval-lanceolar, rounded or cordate at the base or even connate 

 as in E. uncinata, paler beneath and sometimes covered with whitish bloom. The leaves of the 

 aged tree from cold exposed localities are thicker (as is the case also with E. Gunnii), and then the 

 oil-glands are much obscured. Flowering and fruiting branches present only under exceptional 

 circumstances opposite leaves. As many as 43 flowers have been counted by me in one umbel. 

 Instances occur, in which the lid is acutely pointed. The fruit is occasionally shortened to an 

 almost hemispheric form and its valves may occur increased even to six ; the rim sometimes 

 descends rather abruptly to the valves, rendering then the edge of the orifice narrow. 



The systematic name, given by Mons. Labillardifere to this tree, is not happily chosen, as it 

 neither in habit nor in foliage nor in any other way bears resemblance to the Almond-tree. His 

 work illustrates the narrow-leaved variety. To the synonyms are added by Bentham E. longifolia 

 (Lindley, Botanical Register 947) and hence B. Lindleyana (CandoUe, prodromus iii. 219), 

 although the drawing affords no positive evidence of the species intended. Bentham refers here 

 doubtfully also E. ambigua (Candolle, prodromus iii. 219), which however may be a West 

 Australian species, the somewhat leathery leaves, the compressed flowerstalks and the almost 

 globular fruit not really pointing to E. amygdalina ; but E. linearis (Dehnhardt, Eivista Napoli- 

 tana i. 3, p. 173 anno 1839) seems merely to indicate a variety, remarkable for the extraordinary 

 narrowness of its leaves, but neither flowers nor fruits occur in the authentic specimen, preserved 

 in the collection of Baron Cesati, who kindly placed samples of Dehnhardt's original plants at my 

 disposal. 



Eucalyptus Risdoni (J. Hooker, in the London Journal of Botany vi. 477 ; flora Tasmanica 

 i. 133, t. 24 ; Bentham, flora Australiensis iii. 203) seems an aberrant form only of E. amygdalina, 

 as pointed out by me already in 1860 ; and the same may be said of E. dives (Schauer, in Walpers 

 repertorium botanices sytematicse ii. 926 ; Bentham, flora Australiensis iii. 205) ; but the local 

 circumstances, under which these seemingly aberrative states arose, remain hitherto uninvestigated. 

 E. Risdoni is as yet only known from Southern Tasmania ; it is a small tree ; the leaves of the 

 upper branches are mostly, like those of the variety nitida (E. nitida, J. Hooker), thick and rio-id, 

 comparatively short and almost equilateral, while the leaves of the lower branches are, like those 

 of seedlings and sprouts, opposite, sessile, broad, often connate and as well as the branchlets and 

 umbels chalky-whitish, moreover the fruits are generally larger ; but these characteristics are of 

 degree only and none positively specific ; it would seem also as if analogous cases were presented 

 by E. Stuartiana and E. crebra, inasmuch as E. cinerea and E. melanophloia appear to hold the 

 same position to E. Stuartiana and E. crebra as E. Risdoni to E. amygdalina. The distinctions of 

 E. dives are equally weak, being reduced to the suppression or extreme shortness of the leafstalks, 

 and to opposite thick ovate- or broad-lanceolar leaves, but it is wanting altogether in the chalky 



