90 



(b) " Eucalyptus melissiodora Lindl. Sub-tropical N. Holland. Col. Mitchell." 

 Herb. Cant. 



The label of (b) is in the same handwriting as (c) var. citriodora (I think Lindley's 

 handwriting). 



The principal difference between the type .specimens of melissiodora and 

 citriodora lies in the greater amount of rusty tomentum on the leaves and stem of the 

 former. The difference is, however, very slight and variable. 



E . melissiodora was described by Mitchell, when he first came across it, as having 

 " a powerful odour of balm." (Melissa officinalis.) 



At the same time and place he found " another bush, with leaves of the same 

 shape, and glossy, but having a perfume equally strong of the lime." This was called 

 E. citriodora. Neither species had flower or fruit. 



Bentham (B.F1. iii, 254) doubtfully describes this in the following words :— 



A shrub, exhaling a powerful odour of balm, and covered with a rusty resinous pubescence, short 

 and scabrous on the foliage, almost bristly on the branchlets. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, more 

 or less peltately inserted on the petiole above their base, the veins transverse, but not close. Flowers and 

 fruit unknown. 



Queensland. — Sandstone rocks, Balmy Creek, Mitchell. Possibly a barren state 

 of E. citriodora or some allied species, in which the leaves of the flowering branches 

 are not peltate. 



3. E. variegata F.v.M. in Journ. Linn. Soc, iii, 88 (1859). The specific name 

 was given because of the appearance of the bark. 



Following is a translation of the original : — 



A tree, branchlets angular, leaves alternate, moderately petiolate, lanceolate-linear or narrow- 

 lanceolate, falcate elongate, long acute, shining, thickly penniveined, covered with pellucid dots, peripheral 

 vein very close to the edge, umbels paniculate, 3-flowered, the calyx-tube semiovate, twice as long as the 

 hemispherical operculum, and like it ecostate, fruits tiuncate-ovate, 3-cellcd, 2-4 times longer than the 

 pedicel, ecostate, smooth at the vertex, valves included", seeds winged. Habitat in the grassy hills near 

 the Burnett Eiver. Flowering in the summer. 



A rather tall tree, trunk smooth, ashy-white, vaiiegatcd with the grey or dilty reddish outer layer 

 of the bark. Leaves mostly 4-7 inches long, and an equal number of lines broad. Peduncles 2-3 lines 

 long, angular. Buds ovate. Fiuits 5-6 lines long, gradually contracted at the apex. 



Called Spotted Gum-tree by ceitain of the colonists. In habit it hardly differs from E. lereticornis 

 and E. rostraia, except in the trunk, which is stripped of the outermost layers of bark as far as the base, 

 and not covered with old woodv, flakv, wrinkled lavers of bark. 



