65 
Leaf. Reference to the plate will show that the shapes of the leaves vary. 
As a very general rule they are rounded, nearly circular, sessile, and therefore stem- 
clasping, but there is a perfect gradation to a lanceolar form, and to those with a 
distinct petiole. 
Usually the foliage is glaucous. 
Bark. The bark varies. Mueller, in the original description, says : " Per- 
sistent bark thick, deeply furrowed, rough and blackish." He then speaks of 
Leichhardt (Overland Expedition, Sfc.} having found a second form, about the Gulf 
of Carpentaria, with dirty-greyish, flaky bark. 
Generally speaking it is Ironbark ; this would appear to be always the case 
in New South Wales. As tropical regions are approached, the bark would appear 
to have the ridges flatter and to become more flaky, so that the "box-like" 
character is sometimes assumed. 
Timber. As a rule, this is not a very large tree, and it is often crooked and 
pipy, the prey of white ants. In consequence large logs are not easy to obtain over 
a large area of its range, and hence it is not often seen in saw-mills. In Queensland 
it is used for railway purposes sleepers, posts (girders (?) ) on its merits, and it is 
often very durable. It is reddish in colour, and moderately hard. It would appear 
to be the least esteemed of all the Ironbarks, but it is far from being a useless 
timber ; indeed it is much appreciated over large areas. 
Habitat. It is very extensively distributed in the drier parts of New South 
Wales and Queensland. The most southerly locality known to me is the Wybong 
Hills near Denman, New South Wales, where it was first collected by Dr. Leichhardt. 
Westerly it goes as far as the Paroo River. Northerly we have it on the western 
plains and slopes, and thence over an enormous area in Queensland from south to 
north. It also occurs in the Northern Territory, and extends to the Kimberley 
district in the north-western portion of Western Australia. 
It is accommodating as to soil, occurring on both ridges and flats, but it has 
been stated that it is partial to good wheat soils, and this aspect of an important 
question might be followed up. 
A remarkable form akin to E. j mela,nophloia.~ r $\\z making of species is going 
on all around us, but in regard to large trees, which do not produce seed until after 
the lapse of years, it is very rarely that we have the opportunity of tracing the 
parents except by inference. 
,1 would invite attention to some specimens of an Ironbark sent from Warialda, 
N.S.W., by Mr. W. A. de Benzeville. Its foliage is pale-coloured but not glaucous. 
Its juvenile foliage is of a paler green, with short petioles, broadly lanceolate, but 
very different to that of E. melanophloia. 
