185 



DESCRIPTION. 



CXC. E. aspera F.v.M. 



In Journ. Linn. Soc. iii, 95 (1859). 



Following is a translation of the original : — 



A tree, branchlets somewhat terete, hispid, leaves small, opposite, papery, oblong-ovate, obtuse, 

 cordate at the base, sessile, glaucous, opaque, scabrous, penniveined, on the under side reticulately veined, 

 covered more or less with oil-dots, rough along the midrib, the longitudinal vein distant from the edge, 

 umbels axillary, sessile (shortly pedunculate with hispid peduncles — R. Kippist), two or few-flowered, 

 pedicels (very glabrous, — R.K.) a little longer than the somewhat campanulate eeostate fruit, valves 

 included. 



Habitat in sandy, hilly plains (sandstone tableland), more or less elevated up to the Victoria River 

 and Strut's Creek, in Arnhem's Land, and not very common near the Gulf of Carpentaria. Flowers in 

 spring. 



A small tree with smooth greyish-white (ashy-white) bark. Leaves for the most part 1-2 inches 

 long. 8-12 inches broad. Fruit almost 3 lines long. Its affinity is E. setosa Schauer. 



Bentham (B. Fl. iii, 254) describes it in the following words : — 



106. E. aspera, F. Muell. in Journ. Linn. Soc. iii, 95. A small tree, with a smooth ashy-white bark 

 (F. Mueller), the branchlets and often the leaf -veins scabrous or hispid, the foliage often glaucous. Leaves 

 sessile, opposite, cordate, ovate or oblong, obtuse, mostly under 2 inches long. Peduncles axillary or 

 lateral, very short, each bearing two to six flowers, on pedicels either very short or longer than the calyx. 

 Calyx-tube short and broad, 2 to nearly 3 lines diameter. Operculum hemispherical, obtuse, shorter than 

 the calyx-tube. Stamens 2 to 3 lines long, inflected in the bud ; anthers oval-oblong, with parallel distinct 

 cells. Fruit ovoid-truncate, slightly contracted or straight at the orifice, 3 to 4 lines long, the rim thin, 

 the capsule deeply sunk. 



It is not described in the " Eucalyptographia." 



Note that the flowers are two or few flowered as described ; they are described 

 as 2-6 by Bentham, and so figured in fig. 7a, Plate 152. 



RANGE. 



The type came from the sandstone table-land of the Upper Victoria River and 

 Sturt's Creek, but it is added that it is not very common near the Gulf of Carpentaria. 

 This statement could only be proved in regard to the track pursued by Mueller in the 

 Gregory Expedition of 1856. We know but little of the range of the species, even yet; 

 it has probably been passed over for E. clavigera. It has not yet been found with 



