47 



DESCRIPTION. 



CLXV. E. dealbata A. Cunn., 



Ex Schauer in Walper's Repertorium ii, 924 (1843). 



Following is a translation of the original :— 



Entirely glaucous-pruinose, with rigid, terete branches, leaves coriaceous, ovate or elliptical, oblique 

 at the base, contracted into the petiole, veins acute in the adult stage, pale and opaque, with pellucid dots ; 

 peduncles axillary, flowers subsessile, terete; petioles rather short; pedicels angular, equal in length to 

 the calyx-tube ; operculum membranous, acutely conical ; oalyx-tube shortly cup-shaped, twice as long, 

 and less in breadth. Length of leaves, 3-3| inches, 1-1^ inches broad, petiole scarcely an inch long; the 

 operculum about three lines long. 



In the interior parts of New South Wales, in the neighbourhood of WelUngton Valley. 



The type specimen was obligingly lent to me by the Director of the Vienna 

 Herbarium in 1901, and Miss Flockton made an excellent drawing of it. It is in full 

 flower, but all the leaves are in the opposite-leaved stage. The leaves are broad (4-5 

 cm., and about twice as long), and one and part of a second, together with a rounded 

 conical operculum, have been figured at 3a, Plate 134. The fruit has a sharpish, flat 

 rim, with well exserted valves. 



In B. Fl. iii, 239 the species is described in English. 



In the " Eucalyptographia " Mueller did not figure it, as he looked upon it as 

 " merely an abnormal state of E. vim/indUs." 



Where you have a scraggy small tree, as E. dealbata normally is, growing in 

 exposed situations, it is not surprising that, under improved conditions of shelter and 

 soil, a good deal of variation may result. It may be mallee-like or grow into tall trees, 

 but usually it is not a symmetrical, but a stunted plant. The bark falls off in flakes or 

 small ribbons. "The tree is never quite smooth; there is always a certain amount of 

 rough, untidy bark at the butt. 



The young branchlets may be angled, but this is not an invariable character. 



The whole plant is most commonly glaucous or dealbate (dealbatus, whited or 

 white-washed), but there are all stages to merely dull and perfectly glabrous. 



One's first impression, on examining the type, is that of a species which " never 

 grows up," or is isoblastic, for it flowers in the juvenile stage, but a little experience 

 shows that while it is normally a broad-leaved species, often flowering in that state, it 

 often assumes the lanceolar-leaved form, affording an instance of retarded heteroblasty. 

 In this respect it can be compared with such species as E. cinerea F.v.M., E. Risdoni 

 Hook, f., and E. gamophylla F.v.M. 



