20 



DESCRIPTION. 



XCH. E. Oldfieldii F.v.M. 



In Fragm. ii, 37(1860). 



Following is a translation of the original : — 



A shrub, leaves alternate with, rather long petioles, ovate or narrow lanceolate, thick, coriaceous 

 the same colour on both sides, slightly curved, imperforate, faintly and spreadingly veined, peripheral vein 

 fairly distant from the edge, umbels shortly pedunculate, 2- or 3-flowered, the almost hemispherical oper- 

 culum narrowed into a short umbo slightly longer than the semi-globular tube of the subsessile calyx, the 

 very convex top of the fruit broadly encircling the capsule, calyx-tube exangular, hemispherical, the vertex 

 of the 3- or 4-celled capsule pyramidal and exsert, seeds without wings. 



In sandy plains near the Murchison Eiver — A. Oldfield. 



A shrub 4-5 feet high. Bark red, with loose flakes. Branchlets angled, the older ones terete. 

 Leaves shining, 2^-5 inches long, J— 1J inches broad at the lower part. Peduncles 1| up to a few lines long, 

 thickened at the base. Buds 4-5 lines long, wrinkled. Fruits not broader than -|- inch; tube hemispherical, 

 margin 2 lines broad. Valves or either the exsert part of the capsule itself 1| lines long, almost deltoid. 

 Seeds sterile, f— 1 line long ; the fertile ones hardly more than a line long and blackish. 



It was described in English by Bentham in B.F1. hi, 237, and figured and described 

 by Mueller in his " Eucalyptographia. " 



Notes supplementary to the description. 



It has an ovoid operculum usually more or less rostrate. Its juvenile foliage 

 is petiolate and ovate, not broad, with the intramarginal vein distinctly removed from 

 the edge. I have not seen it in its earliest stage. 



It is a stiff shrub of 8 or 10 feet, with many thin stems close together, forming an 

 impenetrable scrub, but not a true Mallee. It is not a timber tree. 



The anther will be found figured at fig. 9, Plate 171. It will be seen that it is 

 practically identical with that of E. piriformis (fig. 9, Plate 171), belonging to a group 

 named by Mueller Strongylanthera?. 



