EUCALYPTUS PTYCHOCARPA. 



F. V. M., in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society iii. 90 (1858) ; Bentham, flora Australiensis 



iii. 255. 



Finally rather tall ; leaves large, scattered, from broad-oval verging into an elongate- 

 lanceolar form, straight or somewhat sickleshaped, paler and dull-colored beneath ; lateral veins 

 subtle, numerous, almost transversely spreading, the circumferential vein nearly contiguous to the 

 margin of the leaf ; oil-dots concealed or obliterated ; umbels terminal, paniculated, with S^tcr 7 

 large flowers ; stalks almost cylindrical ; stalklets angular ; calyces ridged by about 8 longitudinal 

 prominent lines, the tube almost bellshaped or topshaped, twice or thrice as long as the nearly 

 hemispheric lid ; stamens all fertile, filaments scarlet, inflexed before expansion ; anthers oval, 

 bursting with longitudinal slits ; style rather thick ; fruits large, truncate-ellipsoid and slightly 

 urnshaped or bellshaped, 4-celled, longitudinally lined by about 8 ridges, the vertical margin not 

 very broad, but suddenly and amply descending to the orifice ; valves deeply enclosed; the fertile 

 seeds produced into a rather large terminal appendage, the sterile seeds much narrower. 



Along rocky rivulets and also on the margins of exsiccating watercourses towards the sources 

 of the Wentworth-, Wickham- and Limen Bight-Eivers (F. v. M.) ; on Melville-Island (Fraser) ; 

 near Port Essington (Gilbert) ; at the mouth of the Liverpool-Eiver (B. Gulliver). 



A middle-sized or rather large tree, with a greyish wrinkled everywhere persistent somewhat 

 fibrous b ark, thus fluctuating between the Stringybark- and the so-called Box-trees, though in 

 cortical characters perhaps nearest to B. hemiphloia and B. albens ; but the accurate histologic 

 examination of these and numerous other species in reference to their bark remains hitherto 

 incomplete, though such would reveal in all probability important characteristics not only for 

 specific discrimination, but also perhaps for industrial applications. Leaves conspicuous ly 

 stalked, not rarely a span long, occasionally exceeding even a foot in length ; their margin 

 narrowly recurved as in all species with only hypogenous stomata. Flowerstalks from ^ to 2 

 inches long, the stalklets still more variable in length, as well as the calyces often covered with 

 a whitish in age evanescent bloom. Anthers dorsifixed. Fruits lignous, 1 to 2 inches long. 

 Valves horizontal, deltoid. Fertile seeds about 2 lines long, with an almost oval appendage 

 extending additionally to 3 lines ; the appendage of the sterile seeds very narrow. 



The description could only be prepared from scanty material. Mr. B. Gulliver, who saw the 

 tree during Captain Cadell's discovery-voyage to the coasts of Arnhem's Land, states the flowe rs 

 (fllaments) to be scarlet. If really they participate in the bright color of B. miniata and E. phce- 

 nicea, we should have an additional highly ornamental species to select for our arboreta even here 

 far south, as the intratropical Eucalypts proved in my exper ience quite hardy, wherever the 

 thermometer does not sink below zero longer than a few hours at a time. It is~mainly for this 

 reason, that attention is drawn to this species now, although it may perhaps also prove a quick 

 growing timber-tree of value for moist tropical climes, in places where many of the extratropical 

 Eucalypts do not prosper. 



Its affinity is with E. Abergiana and E. miniata ; from the former it can be distinguished by 

 its longer leaves with a still paler lower page, by its also still larger flowers, which are provided 

 with usually long stalklets (although Bentham describes the latter as occasionally also very short), 

 and most particularly by the fruit longitudinally traversed by about eight narrow ridges. 



From E. miniata it is far more distinct in its not scaly-friable bark, which does not separate 

 from the main branches, in the leaves being not of a pale and dull-green on both sides, besides 



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