37 



DESCRIPTION. 



C XX III. E. miniata A. Cunn. 



Ex Scliauer in Walpers' Eepertoriurn ii, 925 (1843). 



Thex described in B.F1. iii, 228, and subsequently described and figured by Mueller 

 in the " Eucalyptographia." 



It may attain the dignity of a tall tree, and the late Mr. N. Holtze of Darwin 

 informed me tbat the white ants (Termites) eat the heart-wood, but do not touch 

 the sap-wood. The timber is reddish brown according to Mr. B, IT. Cambage. 



The juvenile leaves (collected by Mr. 11. H. Cambage at Croydon, North 

 Queensland, but received too late for figuring) have not hitherto been described. 

 They are petiolate, and cordate to broadly lanceolate, not acuminate, but often with 

 a short mucro ; sometimes emarginate. Intramarginal vein at a considerable 

 distance from the edge ; secondary veins pinnate. The rhachises and both sides of 

 the leaves, particularly the under sides, plentifully besprinkled with stellate hairs. 



The bark is remarkable, and appears to very closely resemble only that of 

 E. plicenicea. The original describer does not refer to it, but Leichhardt refers to it 

 as a " Stringy bark," as ''lamellar (the branches white and smooth)." Mr. B. H. 

 Cambage speaks of it as " yellow, scaly, almost papery." That gentleman has 

 presented me with a piece of a branch or small sapling, with bark thereon, and I 

 can only add that no Eucalyptus bark I have ever seen reminds me so much of the 

 more friable barks of various species of Birch (Betula) in its colour — white to yellow 

 and reddish brown — and uniform papery thinness, and differs only in its brittleness. 

 It is, indeed, so brittle that it will break into thin small foliaceous pieces and blow 

 away if it is not kept carefully wrapped up in paper or cloth. 



It can be readily understood that the bark on the trunk (the tree reaches a 

 diameter of 2 feet) is more coarsely lamellar, rendering the names " Woolly butt " and 

 even " Stringybark " more or less appropriate. 



We can now understand Mueller's description of the bark in the " Euca- 

 lvptograpbia ". . . " lamellar, brittle, partly glittering, interwoven with woody 

 ramifications, grey-brownish or yellowish outside.". . . a free translation of his 

 description of the bark of E. aurantiaca (a synonym of E. miniata), in Journ. Linn. 

 Soc, iii, 91. 



Mueller, op. eit., p. 99, in his cortical system, created a special group, 

 " Lepidophloise — cortex saltern in trunco persistens lamellaris friabilis. (Vulgo, 

 Melaleuca gum trees, Mica trees.)" The only species with such barks are E. miniata 



