30 



Eucalptus microtheca, F.v.M. 



The Coolabah. 



Botanical Name.—Microtheca, from two Greek words, micros (small), and 

 iheke (something- to put anything else in)— hence, in botany (amongst other 

 technical meanings), a capsule— hence, a small fruit, for this species has one 

 of the smallest of all Eucalyptus fruits. 



Jernacular Name.— This is the true Coolabah of the aborigines, variously 

 spelt Coolybah, Coolibar, Coolybar. The name has been persistently though 

 erroneously attached t6 at least two other trees — Eucalyptus bicolor, A. 

 Cunn., the Black or Flooded Box, and one at least of the so-called Apples 

 (Angophora). 



"Flooded Box," Gulf of Carpoaitaria. "White Gum,'^ in Western 

 Australia, where its bark sometimes looks as if it had been whitewashed, 

 ' Leaves. — The leaves of this tree are commonly glaucous, or at least pale- 

 coloured, and the venation well marked. 



Fruits. — The very small fruits with exserted valves are usually quite 

 sufficient to distinguish this species. 



Barh. — The bark of this tree, as we in New South Wales know it, is rough 

 and persistent, more or less fibrous and even scaly on 'the trunk, with usually 

 smooth bark on the limbs. 



Mueller, however, described the tree (type from the N'orthern Territory) 

 as .... " with a dirty brownish-white bark, full of wrinkles and 

 cracks, persistent on the trunk, deciduous on the upper branches, leaving 

 them ashy white." 



Bentham (B.Fl. iii, 223) quotes Oldfield, as regards the llurchison Eiver, 

 W.A., . . . . " who remarks on the variability of the bark, but there 

 appears to be some confusion in his notes." There may be no confusion. 



Western Australian trees are so different, as regards the bark, to New 

 South Wales and Queensland (not far north) trees that, familiar as I am 

 with the latter, I did not recognise E. microtheca (a White Gum) in the 

 Murchison district, W.A., when I first saw it, and had to examine the twigs. 

 Here is an instance in which there is a great variation in the bark in the 

 same species (over an interval of, say, 2,000 miles), and we are reminded 

 that examination of the bark, a most useful character, must be conducted 

 with caution. The amount of rough bark on the trunk varies within wide 

 limits ; sometimes it is almost absent. It is a matter of degree. 



Eoth refers to the barks as used by the Queensland aborigines in the 

 following terms, but it contains nothing of a jioisonous nature, and the 

 results are obtained through the astringent principle. There is no active 

 principle, which is contained in this bark which is not contained in the bark 

 of very many other Eucalypts ; its use is simply a matter of local convenience 

 by the blacks : — 



In the North-west Central districts, especially in large water-holes, I have 

 often watched the process (of flsh-poisonins. or rather stupefying. — J.H.M.). 



The whole camp may co-operatp, a,nd will start throwing the leafy boughs 

 and branches in first thing of a morning. During the day the water becomes 

 darljtn- and darker and strongly .smelling, until by the following morning at 

 .sunrise, when it is almost black, the fish all lie panting at the surface, and 

 are easily caught. {N.Q. FdUixiifraphit, Bull. No. 3. Roth.) 



The inside bark is beaten up and used as a poultice for snake-bites, heated. 

 Cloncurry, &e. (E. Palmer.) 



Tirnber. — This wood is reddish-brown or reddish, and hard, heavy, and 

 elastic. Mons. Thozet speaks of it with fig-ure not unlike walnut, but darker. 



