EUCALYPTUS OCCIDENTALIS. 



burnt to the root. It is in blossom during many months, if not perhaps at all seasons ; in our 

 collections we have flowering specimens gathered from June to February. Small seedlings have 

 a smooth stem, scattered oval or somewhat rhomboid leaves on short stalks and measuring 1 to 1^ 

 inches in length. ( Vide F. v. M. fragmenta vii. 43.) 



Extended observations on increased material seem to teach us now, that E. spathulata 

 (Hooker, icones plantarum t. 611) and E. macrandra (F. v. M., in Bentham's flora Australiensis 

 iii. 235) are extreme forms of B occidentalis, the former being distinguished chiefly by small 

 flowers and short and extremely narrow leaves ; the other exhibits elongated calyces on hardly 

 any stalklets with very long stamens, generally smaller fruits with very short frait-valves. More 

 important are the distinctions of E. cornuta and E. obcordata, which with E. occidentalis seem to 

 be the only three entitled to specific rank in the series of CornutEe or Orthostemoneas, and even 

 the lines of demarcation between these three are not always very clear ; still E. cornuta (lately 

 illustrated in my Report on the Forest-resources of Western Australia pi. 7, and including as 

 varieties E. Lehmanni and E. annulata) difi'ers in the fruits, which without intervention of 

 stalklets are sessile on the common stalk, further in the coherent and exceedingly long fruit-valves, 

 which form thus an awlshaped beak ; E. obcordata is distinguished from E. occidentalis by its 

 roundish somewhat crenulated leaves, by the still broader and often longer general flowerstalks, 

 also by the absence of stalklets, by the angular calyx-tube, the often dark-red filaments and fruits 

 with deltoid only short-acuminated valves. E. occidentalis bears likewise some resemblance to 

 E. redunca, notwithstanding the sectionally different position of the two species in the anthereal 

 system ; but the bark of E. redunca is altogether smooth and imparts on friction of its surface a 

 white coloration, the flowers are smaller and seated on shorter stalklets, the lid is acutely pointed, 

 proportionately shorter and contracted gradually from a not dilated base, the filaments are thinner, 

 shorter, less angular, more whitish and inflexed while in bud ; the fruits are smaller and slightly 

 contracted at the orifice, while their valves are more enclosed, the fertile seeds are smaller and their 

 testa of lighter color and smooth. E. grossa is removed from E. occidentalis by generally broader 

 and thicker leaves, shorter and stouter flowerstalks, absence of stalklets, proportionate shortness 

 of the calyx-lid, fllaments inflexed in their earliest state and of less rigidity, and entirely enclosed 

 fruit-valves. It may however here be observed, that the inflexion of the filaments is not an 

 absolute specific character, as they accommodate themselves in E. tereticornis according to the 

 length of the operculum, being quite straight in bud when the lid is so much elongated as to 

 afl'ord them full space. Some shrubby specimens of E. occidentalis, verging to E. obcordata but 

 being narrow-leaved, were placed by Bentham doubtfully with E. grossa. All these Eucalypts 

 belong to the same geographic range. 



E. occidentalis, in its scope as here considered, seems so variable, as to change much of former 

 ideas as regards the precincts of Eucalyptus-species, a similar playfulness of forms having been 

 observed by me in E. stricta and E. incrassata, the characters of shrubby Eucalypts provino- 

 generally less constant, than those of the tall timber-trees of this genus. 



Explanation of Analttic Details.— 1, an unexpanded flower, its lid lifted ; 2, longitudinal Bection of an 

 unexpanded flower ; 3-4, front- and back-view of a stamen ; 5, style and stigma ; 6 and 7, longitudinal and transverse 

 section of fruits ; 8 and 9, fertile and sterile seeds ; all magnified, but to various extent. 



