i62o The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



EUCALYPTUS CORDATA, Tasmanian Heart-leaved Gum 



Eucalyptus cordata, Labillardibe, PL Nov. Holl. ii. 13, t. 152 (1806); J. D. Hooker, FL Tasm. 

 i. 132 (i860), and Bot. Mag. t. 7835 (1902); Bentham and Mueller, Fl. Austral, iii. 224 

 (1866); Mueller, Eucalyptogmphia, Dec. viii. (1882); Masters in Gard. Chron. iii. 798, 

 fig. Ill (1888); Maiden, in Rep. Austral. Assoc. Advance. Science, Hobart, 1902, p. 374; 

 R. T. Baker, in tbid. p. 344; Rodway, Tasmanian Flora, 58 (1903); Parsons, in Gard. 

 Chron. xlvii. 168, Suppl. Illust. (1910). 



A small tree, rarely exceeding 30 ft. high in Tasmania. Bark smooth, the 

 older bark being shed in scales. Young branchlets quadrangular, glaucous, 

 roughened with reddish oil-glands. Leaves (Plate 365, Fig. i) on adult trees, 

 opposite, in decussate pairs, sessile ; suborbicular or broadly ovate, averaging 2\ in. 

 long and 2 in. broad ; cordate and clasping at the base ; rounded or acute, rarely 

 emarginate, at the apex, which is usually tipped with a short triangular point ; similar 

 in colour on both surfaces, green, or more or less covered with a whitish bloom ; 

 margin reddish, revolute, distinctly crenulate ; oil-glands very numerous, unequal, 

 pellucid, the larger ones roughening the surface as minute protuberances ; lateral 

 nerves few, slender, spreading from the midrib at an angle of 80°. 



Flowers in axillary umbels of threes, usually glaucous ; peduncle stout, 

 glaucous, \ in. long ; calyx-tube campanulate, sessile, \ in. long, covered with oil- 

 glands, usually with two lateral ridges ; operculum cap-shaped, rounded, with a short 

 conical umbo ; stamens all perfect, inflexed in the bud ; anthers ovate, with distinct 

 parallel cells. Fruit hemispheric, but slightly contracted at the summit, where it is 

 about \ in. in diameter ; glaucous and slightly roughened with oil-glands ; rim 

 narrow, slightly elevated ; capsule deeply enclosed, the four valves when open 

 scarcely reaching the level of the rim. 



Seedling,^ with a terete tuberculate stem; cotyledons slightly emarginate, three- 

 nerved, transversely oblong ; primary leaves sub-sessile, opposite, acute, followed by 

 crenate sessile leaves. 



This species was discovered in 1792 by Labillardiere near Recherche Bay in 

 Tasmania, and appears to be confined ^ to this island, where it is rare and local, 

 being recorded also for Mount Brown, Huon Road, Campania, and the Tasman 

 Peninsula. It is without any economic value, and has no popular name in the 

 colony ; but Rodway calls it Heart-leaved Gum. It sometimes remains shrubby, 

 and bears flowers and fruit when only 3 ft. high ; but is usually a small erect tree, 

 occasionally attaining 30 ft. in height, according to Mueller, who adds that 

 Mr. Coombs found a tree 50 ft. high and 18 inches in diameter on the Sandfly 

 river. 



E. cordata appears to have been early introduced, as Sir J. D. Hooker knew 



1 Lubbock, Seedlings, i. 531 (1892). 



2 It is said by Deane and Maiden, in Proc. Linn. Soc. M.S. (Vales, 1901, p. 126, to occur at Rockley Road, near 

 Bathurst in N.S. Wales; but the specimen, which I have seen from that locality in the Cambridge Herbarium, is 

 S. pulverulenta ; and R. T. Baker, in Jiep. Austr. Assoc. Advance. Sc. Hobart, 1902, p. 344, considers that the Bathurst 

 tree is certainly the latter species. 



