Eucalyptus i^35 



EUCALYPTUS COCCIFERA, Mountain Peppermint 



Eucalyptus coccifera^ J. D. Hooker, in London Journ. Bot. vi. 477 bis (1847), and Fl. Tasm. i. 133, t. 

 25 (i860); Lindley, va. Journ. Hort. Soc. vi. 221 (1851); W. J. Hooker, Bot. Mag. t. 4637 

 (1852); Bentham and Mueller, Fl. Austral, iii. 204 (1866); Masters, in Gard. Chron. xiii. 395, 

 fig. 69 (1880), ii. 784, fig. 151 (1887), and iii. 798, figs. 108, 109 (1888); Rodway, 

 Tasmanian Flora, 56 (1903); Maiden, in Rep. Aust. Assoc. Advance. Science, Hobart, 1902 

 p. 365, and Revis. Genus Eucalyptus, i. 142, pi. 28 (1904). 



A small tree, attaining in the high mountains of Tasmania 20 ft. in height. 

 Bark smooth, white. Young branchlets terete, glabrous, glaucous, covered with a 

 dense whitish bloom. Leaves (Plate 365, Fig. 9) on adult plants, alternate, lanceolate, 

 about 2\ to 3 in. long, and f to f in. wide, unequal and tapering at the base, acumi- 

 nate at the apex, which is tipped with a long slender curved hook ; margin entire, 

 whitish, revolute ; equally green or glaucous on both surfaces ; oil-dots numerous, 

 pellucid, very unequal in size ; thick in texture ; lateral veins, arising at an acute 

 angle (30°) from the midrib, not conspicuous ; petiole twisted, f to i^ in. long. 

 Leaves on young plants and on suckers, opposite, sessile, elliptical, about i^ in. 

 long and i in. broad, rounded at the base and apex, the latter tipped with a short 

 sharp point ; entire in margin ; green or glaucous. Branchlets reddish, with numer- 

 ous elevated globose oil-glands. 



Flowers, in axillary umbels of three to seven ; peduncles glaucous, thicker towards 

 the distal end, ^ to ^ in. long ; flower-buds sessile, glaucous, wrinkled, \ in. long ; calyx- 

 tube turbinate, compressed on the back and front, with the two sides narrow and 

 sharply winged ; operculum short, nearly flat, depressed in the centre and with a 

 warty margin ; stamens all perfect, inflexed in the bud ; anthers reniform with 

 diverging cells. Fruit obconic, glaucous, about \ in. long, and f in. broad at the 

 slightly contracted distal end ; nearly smooth externally, the angles of the calyx 

 having disappeared; rim \ in. broad, flat or convex; valves slightly included, 

 three to five. 



The seedling ^ has a terete scabrous dark purple stem ; cotyledons obcordate, 

 cuneate at the base and retuse at the apex ; leaves ovate-lanceolate, thin, entire. 



Our cultivated trees of E. cocci/era in England agree ^ well with the type 



' This species is named, not from the actual presence of insects on the tree, but because the branchlets have a conspicuous 

 whitish bloom, like the waxy secretion of some species of Coccus. 



2 Lubbock, Seedlings, i. 532 (1892). 



' E. coccifera has been confused with the following forms in Tasmania, which have been studied by Maiden, who calls 

 them "gum-top stringy barks," i.e. trees with smooth bark above and stringy bark near the base of the trunk; but very 

 variable in the amount of each kind of bark on individual trees. I suspect that the following are natural hybrids ; there 

 is no reason to suppose that they are in cultivation in England. 



A. Eucalyptus Risdoni, Hooker, var. elata, Bentham, Fl. Austral, iii. 203 (1866); Maiden, in Rep, Aust. Assoc. Adv. 

 Sc. Hobart, 1902, p. 361, and Rsv. Genus Eucalyptus, i. 69 (1903) and i. 144(1904); Rodway, Tasmanian 

 Flora, 56 (1903). 



This name was given by Bentham to two specimens, both numbered 1095, which were collected by Gunn in 1847 oh the 

 west side of Lake St. Clair, where tall trees formed pure forest close to the water's edge. One specimen has glaucous branch- 

 lets, with alternate and very falcate leaves, unequal at the base, and ending at the apex in a hooked point ; flower-buds, six to seven 

 in an umbel, like those of E. obliqua, but glaucous and with conspicuous oil-dots. The other specimen has branchlets and 

 flowers, which are not glaucous. These specimens which have leaves and flowers like E. obliqua, and glaucous branchlets 



