19 
No. 191. 
Eucalyptus microtkeca F.v.M. 
The Coolabah. 
(Family MYRTACE^E.) 
Botanical description. Genus, Eucalyptus. (See Part II, p. 33.) 
Botanical description. Species, JE. microtheca F.v.M. in Journ. Lmn. Soc. iii, 
87 (1858). 
Following is a translation of the original description, wli ich is in Latin : 
A tree with slender nearly terete branches. 
Leaves alternate, shortly petiolate, linear-lanceolate subfalcate, some what acute, dark, and without 
visible oil-glands, very thinly veined, the marginal vein close to the edge. 
Umbels axillary, solitary or paniculate,*few-flowered, the peduncles angular. 
Fruits small, semi-ovate, not ribbed, shortly pedicellate, 3-to -i-celled, the valves inserted below 
the margin, and hardly exserted. 
Fertile seeds blackish, smooth, not winged. 
Hob. Not rare in the fertile plains of Tropical Australia. Tree of middle size, with a dirty 
brownish-white bark full of wrinkles and cracks, persistent on the trunk, deciduous on the 
upper branches, leaving them ashy-white. 
Leaves rather thin, 2-5 inches long, 4-8 inches broad. 
Panicle shorter than the leaves, the peduncles variable in length. 
Fruits 1 to 2 lines long. 
nearly line long, peltate or truncate-ovate. 
It was afterwards described in English by Bent ham in B.Fl. iii, 223, as 
E. brctchypoda Turcz., though with some confusion with E. rudia End!. 
Bentham's description is as follows : 
A tall shrub or small or moderate-sized tree, the bark varying from smooth and whitish to dark 
and rugged, persistent or shed in large patches (Oldjield), dark and rough on the trunk, 
smooth, whitish and deciduous on the branches (J* 1 . Mueller). 
Leaves from ovate obtuse and under 2 inches to long-lanceolate obtuse acute or acuminate, and 
attaining 6 to 8 inches, more or less pale or glaucous, with numerous very fine parallel 
almost transverse veins, scarcely conspicuous when the leaf is thick, the marginal one near 
or close to the edge. 
Peduncles short, terete or nearly so, each with" about three to six or sometimes more small 
flowers ; umbels usually three or four together in short panicles either terminal or in the 
upper axils, or rarely the lower ones solitary and axillary. 
Calyx short, broad and open, 1 to 1} lines diameter. 
Operculum conical or obtuse, not longer than the calyx-tube. 
Stamens 1 to 2 lines long, inflected in the bud ; anthers very small, globular, with distinct 
parallel cells. 
Ovary convex in the centre. 
