DESCRIPTION. 



CLV. E. resinifera Smith. 



In White's Voyage— (1790). 



Following is the original description. It is one of the earliest descriptions of a 

 Eucalypt, and for that reason is especially interesting : — 



Floribus pedunculatis, calyptra conicd acuta. 



This is a very large and lofty tree, much exceeding the English Oak in size. The wood is extremely 

 brittle, and, from the large quantity of resinous gum which it contains, is of little use but for firewood. 

 Of the leaves Mr. White has given no account, nor sent any specimens. [The italics are mine. — J.H.M.] The 

 flowers grow in little clusters, or rather umbels, about ten in each, and every flower has a proper partial 

 footstalk, about a quarter of an inch in length, besides the general one. The general footstalk is remarkably 

 compressed (anceps), and the partial ones are so in some degree. We have perceived nothing like bractea 

 or floral leaves. The flowers appear to be yellowish, and are of a very singular structure. The calyx is 

 hemispherical, perfectly entire in the margin, and afterwards becomes the capsule. On the top of the 

 calyx, rather within the margin, stands a conical pointed calyptra, which is of the same colour as the calyx, 

 and about as long as that and the footstalk taken together. This calyptra, which is the essential mark of 

 the genus, and diners from that of the Eucalyptus obliaua of L'Heritier only in being conical and acute 

 instead of hemispherical, is perfectly entire, and never splits or divides, though it is analogous to the corolla 

 of other plants. When it is removed we perceive a great number of red stamina standing in a conical mass, 

 which before the calyptra was taken off, were completely covered by it, and filled its inside. The antherse 

 are small and red. In the centre of these stamina is a single style of pointal rising a little above them, 

 and terminated by a blunt stigma. The stamina are very resinous and aromatic. They are inserted into 

 the margin of the calyx, so that the genus is properly called by Mr. L'Heritier in the class Icosandria. 

 These stamina and style being removed, and the germen cut across about the middle of the calyx, it appears 

 to be divided into three cells, and no more, as far as we have examined, each containing the rudiments of 

 one or more seeds, for the number cannot with certainty be determined. Whether the calyptra in this 

 species falls off, as in that described by Mr. L'Heritier, or be permanent, we cannot tell. From one specimen 

 sent by Mr. White, the latter should seem to be the case ; and that the calyx swells and rise around it nearly 

 to the top, making a pear-shaped fruit, with the point of the calyptra sticking out at its apex ; but as this 

 only appears in a single flower, and none of the others are at all advanced towards ripening seed, the flower 

 in question may possibly be in the morbid state, owing to the attacks of some insect. (See Fig. G.*) 

 Future observations will determine this point. We have been the more diffuse in our description on account 

 of the singularity of the genus, and the value of the plant. On making incisions in the trunk of this tree, 

 large quantities of resinous juice are obtained, sometimes even more than 60 gallons from a single tree. 

 When this juice is dried it becomes a very powerfully astringent gum-resin of a red colour, much resembling 

 that in the shops known as " Kino,"' and, for all medical purposes, fully as efficacious. Mr. W hite 

 administered it to a great number of patients in the dysentery which prevailed much soon after the landing 

 of the convicts, and in no one instance found it to fail. This gum-resin dissolves almost entirely in spirits 

 of wine, to which it gives a blood-red tincture. Water dissolves about one-fifth part only, and the watery 

 solution is of a bright red. Both these solutions are powerfully astringent. The plate represents a portion 

 of the bark of the Eucalyptus resinifera, with the fructification annexed. 



* Reproduced at lb, Plate 124. 



