EUCALYPTUS MACP.OCARPA. 
(Large-fniited Gum Tree.) 
Class. 
Order. 
ICOSANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
MYRTACEiE. 
( Myrtle-blooms, Veg. King . ) 
Generic Character — Calyx-tube persistent, obovate, 
sometimes like a round cup ; limb in the form of a lid, 
entire, separating transversely at the base from the 
tube, deciduous. Petals none. Stamens numerous ; 
filaments free. Ovary four or five-celled ; ovules many. 
Capsule four-celled, sometimes only three-celled from 
abortion, opening at the top. Seeds many. 
Specific Character. — Plant a shrub, everywhere 
covered with a glaucous-white pulverulent substance. 
Young branches four-sided. Leaves numerous, op- 
posite, large, three to four inches long, elliptical-ovate 
or cordate, sessile, and half embracing the stem, cori- 
aceous, acuminulate,margined, penni-nerved, the nerves 
very patent, rather crowded, parallel. Flowers axillary. 
solitary, nearly sessile. Calyx-tube sub-hemispherical, 
but tapering ; the free portion united into a hemi- 
spherical acuminate lid, which separates transversely 
from the very thick tube. Stamens exceedingly nu- 
merous. Filaments long, subulate, deep rich red ; the 
central ones spreading. Anthers yellow. Style sub- 
ulate. Fruit very large, orbicular, a depressed hemi- 
sphere, very woody, opening in the middle by four or 
five valves. Hooker, in Bot. Mag., t. 4333. 
Authorities and Synonymes.— Eucalyptus, L'Heri- 
tier. He Candolle. Eucalyptus macrocarpa, Hooker, in 
leones Plantarum,A05-G-'J. Rot. iV/a^i., 433.3. Lehmann 
Plant. Preiss. 132. 
The species of Eucalyptus are numerous ; it is stated that there are one hundred 
or more found in New Holland and other parts of Australia, some of w’hich are the 
loftiest trees in those southern forests. (Magazine of Botany, vol. x., t. 213.) Not 
more however than sixty of these have been yet described, and some only imperfectly 
from mutilated dried specimens. 
Our present species is behind none of them for beauty; its leaves are large, 
spreading, and thickly disposed on the branches ; they are covered both on the upper 
and under surface with a bluish-white powder, which renders them of a peculiar 
glaucous colour. The flowers are large, and of so bright a red, that they form a 
striking contrast with the pale colour of the leaves. In its native country, from the 
loftiness of its growth, the bluish- white colour of the leaves, and the fine red of the 
flowers, it must prove a very striking object. 
It was originally introduced by Messrs. Low and Son, in whose nursery, at 
Clapton, it flowered in September, 1842, when our drawing was made; it was, 
however, subsequently lost by them, and for its re-introduction we are indebted to 
Mr. James Drummond, who found it in an extensive forest on the borders of a large 
sandy desert in the Swan River Colony, and sent seeds of it to the Royal Gardens, 
at Kew, in 1842, where it flowered during the autumn of 1847. 
