163 



Then conies a Latin description, of which the following is a translation : — 



Shrub of 3 to 5 feet, branches spreading, branchlets tetragonous, with marginate angles. Leave3 

 opposite, at one time sub-opposite, petiolate, more often turned back, lanceolate or oblong, coriaceous, 

 compact, margin entire, glaucous, with resinous dots, veins hardly immersed, anastomosing, 3-4 inches 

 long, 14—16 lines broad. Umbels lateral, few-flowered, peduncles and pedicels two-edged, calyx turbinate, 

 obtusely tetragonous, cohering with the ovary, with the angles at the top drawn out into short, subunequal 

 teeth, the two opposite ones a little larger. Operculum depressed hemispherical, with a point, glandular, 

 whitish, marked with four cruciform stria?, slightly depressed opposite the teeth of the calyx, as if composed 

 of the four petals, deciduous. Stamens very many; filaments in four bundles, approximately opposite 

 the petals, hair-like, glabrous, white, the inner ones decidedly shorter ; anthers ovate-subrotund, incumbent, 

 yellowish white, dehiscing with longitudinal cells. Ovary included in the adherent tube of the calyx, 

 four-celled; style 1, cylindrical; stigma obtuse. Capsule included and connate with the enlarged 

 turbinate, oblong, woody calyx-tube, dehiscing in four divisions at the apex. 



Obs. — There can be no doubt respecting the affinity of this genus, w r hich belongs to Myrtaceae and 

 differs from Eucalyptus solely in having a striated operculum placed within a distinctly toothed calyx, and 

 in its filaments being collected into bundles. The operculum in Eudesmia, from the nature of its striae, 

 and their relation to the teeth of the calyx, appears to be formed of the confluent petals only; whereas, 

 that of Eucalyptus, which is neither striated nor placed w r ithin a distinct calyx, is more probabty composed, 

 in several cases at least, of both floral envelopes united. But in many species of Eucalyptus a double 

 operculum has been observed; in these the outer operculum, w T hich generally separates at a much earlier 

 stage, may perhaps be considered as formed of the calyx, and the inner consequently of corolla alone, as 

 in Eudesmia; this view of the structure appears at least very probable in contemplating Eucalyptus globulus, 

 in which the cicatrix caused by the separation of the outer operculum is particularly obvious, and in which 

 also 'he inner operculum is of an evidently different form. 



Jussieu, in some observations which he has lately made on this subject (in Annales du Alus. 19, 

 p. 432) seems inclined to consider the operculum of Eucalyptus as formed of two confluent bracteae, as is 

 certainly the case with respect to the calyptra of Pileanthus, and of a nearly related genus of the same 

 natural family. This account of its origin in Eucalyptus, however, is hardly consistent with the usual 

 umbellate inflorescence of that genus; the pedicelli of an umbel being always destitute of bractea?; and in 

 E. globulus, where the flowers are solitary, two distinct bracteae are present as well as a double operculum. 

 But a calyptra analogous to that of Pileanthus exists also in most of the species of Eucalyptus, where it is 

 formed of the confluent bracteae common to the whole umbel, and falls off at a very early period. Eobert 

 Brown in " Appendix to Flinders' Voyage," ii, 599, t. 3; also his " Miscellaneous Botanical Works" (Bay 

 Soc.), i, 74. 



2. Eucalyptus pleurocarpa Schauer, in Lehmann's Plantce Preissiance, i, 132 

 (1844-5). 



The type came from Cape Riche. 



RANGE. 



It is confined to Western Australia. The type came from coastal hilly tracts 

 from the Stirling Range to Cape Arid, but the original Eudesmia tetragona comes from 

 Lucky Bay, which is a little to the east of Esperance. 



' From Cape Arid (Maxwell) to Lucky Bay (R. Brown), Cape Riche 

 (Preiss), South West Bay (Oldfield), the vicinity of Stirling's Range (F.v.M.), 

 and thence northward at least as far as the remotest sources of the Swan River 

 iTh. Muir)." ("Eucalyptographia.") 



