14 . 
The South Australian Naturalist. 
III. Botanical, 
The stringybarks belong to the group of eucalypts dis- 
tinguished by their persistent fibrous bark usually extending 
to at least the large limbs. The ^‘pattern^’ of the bark is somewhat 
lattice-like in E. obliqua, quite different in appearance as all our 
readers must have noticed from the smooth bark of the Gum 
Group, of which the “River Red Gum” (E. rostrata) is the best 
example. In colour it is greyish on the outside, brownish within, 
but on most of our trees the bark is black from bush fires. The 
wood is wdntish to a pale creamy colour and from its straightness 
of grain is most useful for posts and rails, as in the Mt. Lofty 
ranges, and in Victoria and Tasmania for palings, and building 
timbers. The Tasmanian stringybark, often known as “Austra- 
lia Oak,” makes excellent furniture. 
After the bark, the leaves are a most characteristic means of 
identification. The young leaves are very broad and somewhat 
heart-shaped but the mature leaves are sickle-shaped (falcate) 
and generally decidely unequal, hence the specific term, “obliqua.” 
The leaves are shiny on both sides and fairlv thick. 
The most certain means of identification is however by a 
comparison of the buds and fruits. Though the tree is so large, 
the buds and fruits are small. The clusters (umbels) containing 
from 3 to 20 flowers, the buds having a half round or slightly 
pointed top, the whole being somew'hat clublike. The mature 
fruits are cup shape with from 3 to S divisions, the valves being 
deeply sunk below the rim, they are about half an inch long and 
rather less in width. 
As with many other species the buds appear from 9 to 11 
months before blossoming, usually in December and January, 
and the apiarist can tell several months beforehand whether the 
blossom in any locality will be abundant. 
The classification adopted by Mr. Black in his forthcoming 
Part III of the Flora of S.A. is that used by Bentham in the 
“Flora Australiensis.” Vol. Ill (1866) 189, viz., of the anthers 
w'^hich are broadly divided into two series, those opening in a long 
slit or in a small pore at the top. E. obliqua belongs to the series 
having anthers reniform, opening by divergent slits. 
