42 
No. 228. 
Eucalyptus rostrata Sehleeht. 
Murray Red Gum. 
(Family MYRTACEyE.) 
Botanical description. Genus, Eucalyptus. (See Part II, p. 33.) 
Botanical description. Species, rostrata Schlechtendal in Linncea xx, 655 (1847). 
A tall tree with a greyish-white bark, smooth and separating in thin layers (F. Mueller, and 
others), rarely persistent and rough? (F. Mueller.) 
Leaves lanceolate, mostly falcate and acuminate, 3 to 6 inches long or even more, the lower 
ones sometimes ovate or ovate-lanceolate and straight, not thick, the veins rather regular, 
numerous and oblique, the intramarginal one not close to the edge, or in some desert 
specimens thick with the veins much less conspicuous. 
Penduncks rather short, terete or scarcely compressed, bearing each about four to eight flowers 
on rather long pedicels. 
Calyx-tube hemispherical, 2 to 2J lines diameter. 
Operculum more hemispherical than in E. viminalis and about as long as or shorter than the 
calyx without the point or beak, which is almost always prominent and sometimes rather 
long, or very rarely the whole operculum is elongated and obtuse without any beak, but 
much shorter than in E. tereticornis. 
Stamens about 2 lines long, inflected in the bud ; anthers small, ovate, with parallel distinct cells. 
Ovary short, convex or conical in the centre. 
Fruit nearly globular, rarely above 3 lines diameter, the rim broad and very prominent, almost 
conical, the capsule not sunk and the valves entirely protruding even before they open. 
(B.Fl. iii, 240.) 
Botanical Name. Eucalyptus, already explained (see Part II, p. 34); 
rostrata, Latin, beaked, in allusion to the beak-like operculum or cap of the flower-bud. 
Vernacular Names. This is the Bed Gum par excellence of New South Wales, 
Victoria, and South Australia. The term " Gum " is applied in Australia to those 
species of Eucalyptus which have smooth barks. This is called " Red Gum," because 
it has a red timber. I proposed the name " Murray Red Gum " for it, as it is abundant 
en the river of that name, and to avoid confusion with the closely-related " Forest Red 
Gum," but in any convention for the better use of vernacular names I feel sure that the 
name " Red Gum" would, by common consent, be reserved to the present tree and timber. 
For obvious reasons it is also called " Flooded Gum," " River Gum," and " Creek 
Gum." It used to be called " White Gum " more frequently than it is at the present 
time. I think that use is confined to South Australia. 
