262 



DESCRIPTION. 



LXVIIL E. uncinata Turcz. 



In Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc, XXII, Part II, p. 23 (1849). 



The original Latin description will be found at Part XIV, p. 143, of tlie present work. 

 It may be translated into English as follows : — 



Stem, branches and branchlets terete; bark brown; leaves alternate, petiolate, linear-lanceolate, 

 glaucescent, covered with sub-pellucid dots, marginate, narrowed at the base, produced into an uncinate 

 point at the apex; heads many-flowered, pedunculate, the lower ones somewhat remote, the ripper ones 

 collected into a dense raceme; peduncles about the same length as the petioles; pedicels almost absent; 

 calyx-tube turbinate, terete or scarcely angled ; operculum conical, rather obtuse, about the same length 

 as the calyx-tube, stamens exsert (white). Buds small, the size of those of E. robusta, leaves 2-3 inches 

 long, not exceeding 21- lines in greatest breadth. 



Then Bentham described it : — 



A tall shrub, with a smooth red or ash-grey bark, coming off in coriaceous plates (Oldfield). 



Leaves narrow-lanceolate or linear, usually under 3 inches, thick, the very fine veins scarcely visible, 

 distant and rather oblique, but not so much so as in E. gracilis, always conspicuously black-dotted, especially 

 underneath. 



Peduncles axillary, rather short, terete or scarcely flattened, bearing each an umbel or head of 

 about 6 to 8 small flowers. Buds ovoid or oblong. Calyx-tube about 1 J lines long, sessile or tapering into 

 a short pedicel. Operculum obtusely conical or acuminate, as long as or rather longer than the calyx-tube. 

 Stamens about 2 lines long, all perfect, the filaments slender and inflected, with an acute angle, as in 

 E. corynocalyx and E. decurva; anthers very small, nearly globular, with contiguous cells opening in terminal 

 pores. 



Ovary flat-topped. Capsule globular-truncate or pyriform, 2 to nearly 3 lines diameter, contracted 

 at the orifice, the rim concave or at length nearly flat, the capsule sunk, but the valves often acuminate by 

 the split base of the style, and then the subulate tips protruding. (B. Fl. Ill, 216.) 



The buds are sessile on a compressed common peduncle ; operculum sometimes 

 very short, sometimes rostrate. Calyx-tube somewhat angular. Fruits barrel-shaped, 

 sessile. 



1. The var. latifolia Benth., based on Drummond's No. 76. 



At Part XIV, p. 144, 1 have already thrown doubt on the validity of this variety, 

 and I now emphasise the doubt, and am of opinion that it should be dropped. 



It affords a case of " The flowering of Eucalyptus when in the juvenile stage," 

 referred to in Part XLIX, p. 217. It belongs to that branch of the subject (see 

 p. 274) in which in a mature plant there is juvenile (reversionary) foliage which flowers, 

 and which I have called Diels's Law. In other words, the supposed var. latifolia arises 



