EUCALYPTUS STRICTA. 



Sieber in Sprengel, systema vegetabilium, curse posteriores 195 (1827) ; De CandoUe, prodromus systematis naturalis regni 

 vegetabilis iii. 218 ; E. virgata, Sieber 1. u. 195 ; De CandoUe 1. i;. 217 ; B. cneorifolia, De Candolle, M^moire de la 

 famille des Myrtac^es pi. 9 ; E. Luehmanniana, F. v. M., fragmenta phytographiae Australise xi. 38. 



Shrubby or somewhat arborescent ; leaves scattered, short-stalked, rigid, linear- or narrow- 

 lanceolar and slightly curved or rarely broadish-lanceolar and sickleshaped-curved, always equally 

 green and shining on both sides ; lateral veins of the leaves concealed, very moderately spreading, 

 rarely becoming prominent, the circumferential vein somewhat removed from the edge of the leaf ; 

 oil-dots rather large, much concealed ; umbels axillary, 3-9-flowered ; stalks angular or somewhat 

 compressed or rarely much dilated ; stalklets rather thick, often very short ; lid of the calyx 

 nearly hemispherical, granular-rough, about half as long as the obconical-semiovate tube of the 

 calyx, quite blunt or apiculated or rarely long-pointed ; stamens all fertile, with the exception of 

 some of the outer ones inflexed before expansion ; anthers kidneyshaped, bursting anteriorly with 

 divergent slits ; stigma not broader than the summit of the style ; fruits truncate-ovate, not or 

 rarely angular, 4- rarely 3- or 5- or 6-celled ; fruit-border sharply prominent externally ; valves 

 inserted rather near the orifice, deltoid, enclosed ; sterile seeds mostly not much narrower than the 

 fertile seeds or quite as broad, all without any appendage. 



On the elevated parts of the Blue Mountains, particularly at some of the summits, such as 

 Black Heath, thus advancing to elevations of 3,600 feet (Rev. Dr. WooUs and Rev. R. Collie), also 

 on the higher ranges near Bulli (Kirton) and at Berrima (Mrs. Calvert), occurring however also 

 in the vicinity of Port Jackson. 



A shrub variable in height, flowering sometimes already when only 3 feet high, but rising 

 occasionally to 20 feet ; habit that of the Mallee-Eucalypts, with many stems from one root. 

 Bark smooth, brown. Wood pale. Leaves sometimes reduced to a width of 2 or 3 lines, 

 exceptionally dilated to 1-| inch ; acumen of leaves not rarely quite thin and hooked. Stalklets 

 occasionally fully as long as the calyx-tube. Young calyces, when confluent with the stalklets 

 almost clubshaped. Fruit border often reddish-brown. Only a small portion of the sterile seeds 

 narrow. 



Flowering during December and January in high mountain-regions. It is the only shrubby 

 species occurring in the vicinity of Port Jackson, and does there not extend inland (WooUs). 



This Eucalyptus has a large and intricated synonymy, and it is a very instructive species for 

 studying the variability of specific forms in this genus ; but in this respect E. incrassata shows 

 nearly or quite as much diversity of forms. The variety with very narrow leaves was with a 

 similarly narrow-leaved shrubby form of E. stellulata described by Allan Cunningham as 

 E. microphylla and by George Don as E. Cunninghami, as found out by Mr. Bentham, and noted 

 already under E. stellulata. De Candolle mixed in his prodromus E. stricta and an Eucalyptus 

 from Kangaroo-Island, allied to E. oleosa and E. angustissima, under the name of E. cneorifolia, 

 which latter appellation Professor Tate and the author of this work reserve for the South- 

 Australian species. Sieber gave three names to the Eucalyptus here under consideration ; for he 

 distributed it as E. stricta, E. virgata and E. rigida ; but the latter name seems never to have 

 become diagnostically published ; the specimen 473 of his collection, authentical for E. rigida, 

 accords completely with some forms of E. stricta ; he very likely may have gathered the one plant 

 on the coast, the other high on the mountains, failing to recognize the specific identity. In our 

 plate t he right-hand main-figure represen ts the typical E. stricta, the left one E. rigida. A 

 specimen, numbered by Sieber 472 and communicated by Professor Engler of Kfel,^^agrees 



