223 



DESCRIPTION. 



XCIL E. Oldfieldii, F.v.M. 



In Fragm. ii, 37 (1860). 



It was described in English by Bentham in B.F1. iii, 237, and figured and described 

 by Mueller in " Eucalyptographia." 



Notes supplementary to the description. 



It has an ovoid operculum, usually more or less rostrate. In its varieties 

 the rostrum may be absent. Its juvenile foliage is petiolate and ovate, not broad, 

 with the intramarginal vein distinctly removed from the edge. 



It is a stiff shrub of 8 or 10 feet, with many thin stems close together, 

 forming an impenetrable scrub, but not a true Mallee. It is not a timber tree. 



Variety Drummondii, new variety. 

 Syn. E. Drummondii, Benth., B.E1. iii, 237. 



Mueller ("Eucalyptographia," under E. Oldfieldii) uses the words, "If 

 E. Drummondii should prove a mere variety (of E. Oldfieldii) as seems likely," . . 



Luehmann (Proc. Ami. Assoc. Adv. Science, vii, 532, 1898) writes : 

 " E. Drummondii seems a variety of this (E. Oldfieldii), being smaller in all its 

 parts." 



Neither botanist took upon himself to say that E. Drummondii is a variety 

 of E. Oldfieldii, and, after careful consideration of Oldfieldii, and its forms both in 

 the field and in herbarium specimens, I am of opinion that E. Drummondii, Benth., 

 is a variety of it, which I constitute under the name var. Drummondii. 



The fruit was unknown to Bentham when he described E Drummondii in 

 B.F1. iii, 237, and apparently Mueller only saw tbe young fruits. 



Juvenile foliage petiolate, ovate, intramarginal vein close to edge (specimens 

 of O. H. Sargent, near York, W.A.). 



I constitute Drummond's No 86 (see fig. 6, Plate 71) type of var. 

 Drummondii, and w r ould point out that O. H. Sargent's specimens, Cut Hill, York, 

 are in every way similar to Drummond's No. 86, and fig. 7, Plate 74, may be taken 

 as typical for the fruit. 



RANGE. 



The species and all its forms are confined to Western Australia, so far as we 

 know. The type came from the Murchison B/iver (Augustus Oldtield). There is 

 a specimen, labelled "Tree 30-40 feet. Bark smooth. Thicket near Collcullia, 



