421 



DESCRIPTION. 



CCXII. E. Flocktoniae Maiden. 



This species has been dealt with in Part XVI, p. 185, and Plate 69, as E. oleosa var. 

 Flocktoni (03) and in Part XXXIX, p. 281, as E. Flocktonice. There is also a note on 

 the contrast between this species and E. Cooperiana F.v.M. in Part XXXVI, p. 107. 

 At p. 281 I have referred to the remarkable decurrent leaves of the seedlings of this 

 species, and at figs. 3a-3d, Plate 236, I am able to figure the correlated " juvenile 

 leaves " from the first specimens of the kind I have seen taken from the tree. 



Size, bark, timber. Hitherto, from my own observations (Desmond, near 

 Eavensthorpe, W.A., November, 1909), and from those of Mr. W. C. Grasby 

 (Gnowanerup, 30 miles east of Broome Hill, April, 1912), this species has been 

 recorded as a Mallee. The type was described as " an erect, many-stemmed shrub 

 of 6-8 feet/' 



Mr. C. E. Lane Poole, in sending a photo, (his number 12a) of this tree in July, 

 1919, wrote— 



Redwood, E. oleosa var. Flocktonice, 8 inches in diameter, 12 miles on the Widgiemooltha-Ncrseman 

 road. A young specimen of this tree. It will be seen (not yet reproduced) that it has a perfectly smooth 

 bark, unlike E. oleosa var. glauca (E. transcontinentalis), which retains its bark for a few feet up the trunk. 

 The wood of this tree comes in for fuel, and the cutters make no distinction between it and var. glauca. 

 The seed vessel is particularly graceful in shape, being like a C4recian urn. 



In Xovember, 1920. Prof. E. H. Wilson, of the Arnold Arboretum, took another 

 photograph near Widgiemooltha, when in company with Mr. Lane Poole. He gave its 

 height as 45 feet, and its girth as 2 feet, which, of course, is 8 inches in diameter. 

 Mr. C. E. Gardner, February, 1922, describes it as a tree of 40 to 50 feet. 



In the meantime (1916, 1917, 1919) Mr. W. J. Spafford had been collecting 

 material from South Australia, and states it to be at Yeelanna, Eyre's Peninsula, 



A Mallee, growing from 6 to 10 feet in height, with numerous stems of small diameter in each 

 clump .... I should say, from what I have seen, that it is a fairly small-rooted Mallee, without 

 much tap-root, in these particular conditions. 



Therefore, E. Flocktonice is known in two forms, that of the Mallee (the type), 

 and that of the medium-sized tree. We must keep on collecting. 



Then Mr. C. E. Gardner makes an important contribution towards our 



knowledge of the species. He describes it as — 



A tree of 40 to 50 feet, known in the Kondinin district of Western Australia under the name of 

 '' Meiritt," or " Silver Mallet." Erect, not much branched, trunk to 12 inches in diameter. Bark smooth, 

 almost white, about £ inch thick, decorticating tardily in thick plate3, some of which adhere to the trunk 

 at the base for a considerable period. Timber pink, fairly dense. 

 B 



