410 



DESCRIPTION. 



CCCXLVIII. E. albens Miquel. 



In Ned. Kruidk. Archief., iv, 138 (1856), and B.FL iii, 219 (1866). 



If my readers will refer to Part XI, p. 20, of the present work, they will find that the 

 confusion concerning E. albens was as bad (perhaps worse) as that which gathered round 

 E. hemiphloia. Bentham took both species in hand. In the Part quoted, at pp. 21 and 

 22, I have stated my reasons for following Mueller in including E. albens under 

 E. hemipMoia, but, after fuller consideration, I have come to the conclusion that it is 

 better to keep them apart. 



Bentham's description of E. albens, which did not exist until 1866, is given 

 herewith : — 



A tree, attaining 60 to 80 feet, with a dull green persistent bark (F. Mueller), separating in smooth 

 laminae or strips (C. Stuart), the foliage usually very glaucous or almost mealy-white. Leaves usually 

 large, broad, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, often 6 inches long or more; rigid, with oblique veins, the 

 intramarginal one at a distance from the edge. Peduncles lateral, rigid, scarcely flattened, sometimes 

 f inch long, but often much shorter, bearing four to eight rather large flowers. Buds long and acuminate, 

 apparently sessile, but really tapering into short, thick, angular pedicels. Calyx-tube 3 to 4 lines long 

 and scarcely 2 lines diameter, two-angled or nearly terete. Operculum conical, acuminate, as long as, or 

 rather shorter than, the calyx-tube. Stamens 3 to 4 lines long, all perfect, inflected ; anthers very small 

 and globular, with distinct parallel cells, opening at length to the base or nearly so. Ovary short, slightly 

 conical in the centre. Fruit obovoid-oblong, truncate, nearly | inch long, the rim narrow, the capsule 

 deeply sunk. {B.Fl. iii, 219.) 



The species is figured at figs. 18-22, Plate 50, and 1-8, Plate 51, Part XI, and 

 these seem adeqtiate. 



The leaves may be more fully described as follows : — 



Juvenile leaves thick, glabrous and glaucous throughout ; branches dark, pruinose, lower ones terete, 

 the upper compressed. Leaves reniform to orbicular, on rather long petioles, 4-7 cm. long, 3J-9 cm. broad, 

 finely veined on both surfaces, veins purple. Midrib canaliculate on the upper, and slightly raised on the 

 lower surface. Intramarginal vein not conspicuous, moderately distant from the edge, secondary veins 

 distant, spreading at an angle of about 40° from the midrib. (Leaves described from Gulgong, New South 

 Wales, J. L. Boorman, April, 1901.) 



The leaves form probably the most valuable fodder of all the New South Wales 

 Eucalypts. For details, chiefly from foresters' reports, see my " Forest Flora of New 

 South Wales," Part LXX, p. 415. 



