165 



DESCRIPTION. 



CCLX. E. eudesmioides F.v.M. 



In Fragm. ii, 35 (1860). 



Following is a translation of the original : — 



Dull green, leaves alternate, opposite or sub-opposite, ovate or narrow-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 

 slightly curved, more seldom sub-falcate, spreading and prominently penniveined, covered with bright 

 dots, umbels with not more than three flowers, peduncles and pedicels shorter than the calyx, rarely of the 

 same length. Buds obovate, indistinctly tetragonous, calyx-lube ovate-campanulate, two or three times 

 longer than the hemispherical operculum, the tooth of the fascicle of stamens thickened, semiorbicular 

 and pointed; fruits ovate-campanulate, scarcely angled, 3-4 celled, the vertex of the capsule smooth, 

 valves inserted near the margin of the fruit, the fertile seeds surrounded by a very narrow wing. 



In sandy plains and limestone hills near the Murchison River, at least up to Mount Curious, as well 

 as towards the Bay (Shark's) (Walcott and Oldfield). 



Shrub 4-12 feet high. Called " Mallalie " by the aborigines. Branches rather smooth, branchlets 

 compressed tetragonous. Leaves for the most part |-4 inches long, \- 1 inch broad, with very short and 

 sometimes long petioles, thinly coriaceous, imperforate when old, marginate, pale-green, never hoary, 

 peripheral veins rather distant from the margin. Peduncles at first about 2 lines long, seldom longer, 

 like the pedicels more or less angular. Operculum traversed with four very smooth sutures often scarcely 

 to be observed. Calyx-tube 2-3 lines long, hardly denticulate. Stamen-bundles alternating with the 

 calyx-teeth, leaving behind an incurved tooth with a semiorbicular contracted base. Filaments white 

 or yellowish ; rose-coloured at the base, the longer ones 2| lines long. Anthers pale, sub-ovate. Style 

 barely a line long. The indurated fruit J— \ inch long, with the mouth sometimes distinctly and sometimes 

 not at all contracted, wrinkled. Sterile seeds yellow, less than a line long, angular; fertile seeds blackish, 

 l£-2 lines long, rhomboid-subovate, acutely angled, very narrowly and thinly winged near the margin. 



The genus Eudesniia, if we except the disposition of the stamens, cannot be discerned from any 

 species of Eucalyptus. 



(The filaments, rose-coloured at the base, bring this species into the list of those which have bi-coloured 

 filaments. It belongs to a group where the reddish colour is, like that of E. Sieberiana, not wholly diffused 

 over the whole of the filament.) 



The species is described in B.F1. iii, 260, in the following words :— 



A shrub, attaining 10 feet, with a smooth bark (Oldfield). Leaves from broad-lanceolate and 4 to 

 5 inche? long, to narrow-lanceolate and shorter, mostly mucronate-acute and often falcate, rigid, the veins 

 rather numerous but oblique and anastomosing, very conspicuous in the narrow leaves, much less so in the 

 larger ones, the intramarginal one usually distant from the edge. Peduncles axillary, very short, nearly 

 terete, mostly 3-flowered. Peduncles short. Calyx-tube narrow-turbinate, 2£ to nearly 3 lines long, 

 with four minute teeth, sometimes prominent, sometimes scarcely conspicuous. Operculum short, depressed 

 hemispherical, very obtuse and rather thick. Stamens 2 to 3 lines long, distinctly arranged in four clusters 

 or bundles alternating with the calyx-teeth; anthers very small, nearly globular, with distinct parallel 

 cells. Fruit ovoid or oblong, usually \ to nearly \ inch long, in some specimens (perhaps not perfect), 

 contracted at the orifice, but usually cylindrical, the rim concave, not broad, the capsule slightly sunk, 

 usually 3-celled. 



It is not dealt with by Mueller in his " Eucalyptographia," 

 B 



