EUCALYPTUS FOECUNDA. 



J. C. Schauer in Lehmann's plantse Preissianse i. 130 (1844) ; Bentham, flora Auatraliensis iii. 252 (1866). 



Branchlets slender ; leaves scattered, narrow-lanceolar, generally not much elongated, almost 

 straight or slightly curved, narrowed into a rather short stalk, shining and equally green on both 

 sides ; their lateral veins subtle and moderately spreading, the circumferential vein rather close to 

 the edge of the leaf ; oil-dots numerous but concealed ; umbels axillary and solitary or at the end 

 of the branchlets sometimes forming short panicles, 4-12-flowered ; umbel-stalks rather short and 

 slender ; stalklets almost wanting or very short; calyx-tube hemiellipsoid, twice or thrice as long as 

 the almost hemispheric lid; stamens aU fertile, inflexed before expansion ; anthers nearly ovate, 

 opening by parallel slits ; stigma not broader than the summit of the style ; fruits small, truncate- 

 ovate or hemiellipsoid, slightly angular, 3- or 4-celled ; fruit-border narrow, extending considerably 

 beyond the valves; fertile seeds conspicuously larger than the sterile seeds, all without any 

 appendage. 



From the vicinity of the Salt-Eiver to Swan-Eiver and thence northward to Shark-Bay, 

 particularly on limestone-rises, but also on sandy plains with calcareous substratum. 



The " Ooragmandee" of the Aborigines of the Murchison-Hiver, according to Capt. Pemberton 

 Walcott, who also notes, that the nomades locally use the wood of this species on account of its 

 hardness and elasticity for spears. 



A shrub or small tree, dwarfed on exposed and very dry places to a few feet, flowering already 

 at 4 feet or even less. Bark darkish, smooth, shedding superficially in cartilagineous lamellae, 

 but becoming rough and somewhat fibrous on the stems of aged plants. Leaves dark-green, 

 occasionally in some individual plants only \ inch broad ; their veins sometimes prominent, the 

 circumferential one not always close to the edge of the leaf. Oil-dots dark as in E. gracilis. 

 Filaments pale, but becoming yellow-brownish in exsiccation. Fruits shining. 



Dr. Schauer, when defining descriptively this species from material brought about forty years 

 ago from near the entrance of Swan-Eiver, chose the not very characteristic specific name from 

 the large number of flowers and fruits, with which the branchlets are loaded. E. foecunda might 

 from great external resemblance be confounded with E. gracilis ; but the latter has the outer 

 stamens sterile, the anthers roundish and opening by pores, and the fruits shorter as well as 

 comparatively broader. But the real affinity of the species here under consideration is with 

 E. loxophleba ; indeed it remains unascertained, whether that tree is or is not the arboreously 

 developed state of E. foecunda, arisen in humid mountain-regions and in a deeply pervious soil ; 

 it differs irrespective of its tall growth (to about 100 feet, with a stem-diameter to 4 feet) in gene- 

 rally longer leaves with rather more distant also often more prominent and less spreading veins, 

 the iutramarginal one not close to the edge of the leaf, in the oil-glands being to a large extent 

 pellucid and the anthers generally shorter ; but these particular characters are subject to some 

 variations, and unless it can be shown, that E. foecunda in its youngest state has not the roundish- 

 cordate leaves of E. loxophleba, we could not venture to keep the two specifically apart. Under 

 these circumstances no distinct plate and description will be devoted to E. loxophleba in this 

 work, but on the present occasion some references may aptly be given of that useful tree. 



E. loxophleba, Bentham's flora Australiensis iii. 252 (1866) ; F. v. M., Eeport on the Forest- 

 Resources of "Western Australia 7, pi. 5 ; E. amygdalina, J. 0. Schauer in Lehmann's plantse 

 Preissianse i. 130. — The York-Gum-tree. — On the eastern tiers of the Darling's Eanges a main- 

 constituent of the forests, spreading sparsely eastward to Kojenup and southward to the vicinity 



