The 
South Australian Naturalist 
\ol. \'l ADELAIDE, MAY, 1925. No. 3 
THE RIVER RED GUM, EUCALYPTUS ROSTRATA, 
SCHLECHT. 
One of the most picturesque, widely distrilmled .snd im.)St 
ciiaracteristic trees of Australia is the Red Clum cd the Murra)- 
and ol our Hills. All over Australia, Avherever creeks wind oi' 
waters flow there stood the sturdy boles of these trees, mottled 
grey and green, with ragged bark, the limbs irregularly bent and 
twisted, often in stony ground with little soil available, gnarled 
and stunted yet where there was deep soil growing high and 
straight giving a fine trunk, d'he yevh is used in the past tense 
lor over great areas axe and lire have destroyed the giants of 
the past and, except in isolated spots and along the River, com- 
paratively tew fully-matured trees arc to be seen in our State. ^ ear 
by year the giants fall, their long life ended. 
Botanicah -d'his species was named by Schlechtenda I in Lin- 
iiaea XX, 655 (1847) from specimens from this S'tate but whose 
specimens they were and where they weie collected and the date 
f cannot learn. I have consulted Afaideids ’'Critical Revision of 
the Genus Eucalyptus” (VoL IV, part 3, 65 (1917) and Bentham’s 
“Dora Australiensis” HI, 240, but there is no inlormation as to 
the piecise locality^ of -the ty'pe. Ihe word “rostrata ’ means a 
beak and refers to the sharply defined point of tlie lid or opercu- 
lum which forms the calyx of the flower. 
Distribution. It is found in every State of the mainland but 
It IS lemarkable that according to Baker and Smith neither this 
nor any other red timbered gums occur in Tasmania, 
Habitat. 1 his gum is usually found in damj-i situations such 
as the banks of creeks and rivers but also extends over hills com- 
posed of slate. It is a conspicuous feature in the drier portions 
OI Australia growing along the watercourses wliich are ustiallv 
dry, or have no surface water. 
