18 



CXCIV. E. Speneeriana Maiden. 



Height 20 to 35 feet, but occasionally attaining a height of 50 feet. Trunk to 20 feet and 18 inches 

 diameter. Branches spreading or erect, few, and sparsely foliaged. Bark light grey, persistent and flaky, 

 rugged or almost smooth, and very similar in texture to that of the Tuart (E. gomphoc&phala). Timber 

 dark reddish-brown, dense with an interlocked grain. Sapwood thin, light yellow. The timber is termite- 

 resisting. Leaves alternate, narrow lanceolate, drooping vertically, of a glaucous green, fiat, the midrib 

 prominent, but the veins inconspicuous, the intramarginal close to the edge. Veins at an angle of about 

 45 degrees to the midrib. Flowers not seen, but small and apparently white, in loose slender panicles, 

 terminal or inserted just above the axils, not exceeding the leaves in length. Pedicels slender, slightly 

 flattened. Calyx-tube turbinate, slightly compressed, tapering into the slender pedicel. Operculum 

 depressed-conical, the line of separation fairly distinct. Stamens inflected in the bud. Style short, straight 

 and thick. Fruits thin, ovoid, 3- or 4-valved, the rim thin and truncate, the obtuse points of the valves sunk. 



(The above notes are by C. A. Gardner, and refer to Kimberley trees.) 



RANGE. 



Western Australia. — The common Grey Box of the basaltic areas of the 

 Kimberleys, and the commonest Eucalypt of the district, and known as " Box " or 

 " Coolabah." (I have seen a specimen from Walcott Inlet, Calder River, C. A. Gardner. 

 No. 1589). The following are Mr. Gardner's notes : 



Extending from the Lennard River in the south to Napier, Broome Bay, in the north, west to Camden 

 Sound and Walcott Inlet, and indefinitely, eastwards. The species covers the granite and basaltic areas 

 of Kimberley, being restricted to this formation. It often forms pure savannah forests, but its most 

 frequent associate is E. clavigera, a tree, common to both igneous and sedimentary rocks. The foliage is 

 never a bright green, and from a distance the trees indicate the best pasture land, their undergrowth being 

 almost entirely Gramineae, with larger shrubs. I have not seen a tree otherwise than on basaltic or granite 

 country. It was undoubtedly the tree mentioned in Fitzgerald's Kimberley Report (1907) under the name 

 of E. microtheca, when he stated " On the plains and frequently sparsely covering the basaltic hills, Coolibah 

 or Box (E. microtheca) and Bloodwoods (E. terminalis and E. pyrophora) prevail, often forming open forests 

 of fair extent, the species ultimately extending to the coast. (I have not seen either E. terminalis or 

 E. pyrophora on the basaltic country)." 



Northern, Territory. — I provisionally refer the following specimens, received 

 from the Melbourne Herbarium before 1900, to this little-known species. They are 

 quite small, and in mature leaf and flower bud. 



1. "North Coast and Bay 3" [Northern Territory.— J.H.M.], Robert Brown, 

 1802-5. Sent from the British Museum by direction of J. J. Bennett in 1876 as 

 E. polyanthemos Schauer. and labelled by Mueller E. drepanophylla (?). 



2. " Cape River " (Northern Queensland) " E. polyanthemos, petioles short." 

 This is a modern specimen (? Stephen Johnson, Mueller's collector), and is in flower as 

 well as bud. 



