198 
No. 245. 
Eucalyptus dumosa A. Cunn. 
The White Mallee. 
(Family MYRTACE>.) 
Botanical! description.- CJenus, Eucalyptus. See Part II, p. 23. 
Botanical iloscriptlon^peci.,4fama Allan Cunningham, in Oxley' s " 
of two Expeditions," p. 63 (1820). Bentham (B.F1. iii, 230) quotes the date of 
the species as that of Schauer in Wdperi Repertarium ii, 925 (1843). 
date of the species at 1820. I am quite aware that such a slight description 
(although it was backed by specimens) would not be valid if published now, but 
we must be consistent, and if we apply the strict botanical rules of to-day to 
the loose practice of a century ago, a number of descriptions of Eucalypts \vil 
fall, together with innumerable non-Eucalypts, thus causing much confusion. 
Following explains the history of the species : 
Here is an extract from Allan Cunningham's Journal, under date 23rd May, 
1817 :- 
Eucalyptus dumona. Leaves alternate, ovate lanceolate, fruit rough. This plant forms th 
principal shrub in a tract of confined bushy scrub. 
A little later, Oxley made the entry : 
.(uni- K>th, 1817. Mr. Cunningham named those thick brushes of Eucalyptus that spread in 
,.\-rv ilir-Ttioii iiniund us Eucalyptus damosa, or the dwarf gum, as they never exceed 20 feet in height, 
ami are generally from 12 to 15, spreading out into a bushy circle from their roots in such a manner that it 
is MiiiH.-Ml.il> to see farther than from one bush to another, and these are very often united by a species 
i.f vine. (< 'assytha), and the intermediate space covered with prickly wire-grass, rendering a passage through 
tin-in equally painful and tedious. (Journals of Tioo Expeditions, Oxley, 1820, p. 63.) 
About this time, say between 23rd May and 10th June, Allan Cunningham was 
mainly between 33 and 34 S. lat. and 146 and 147 E. long., i.e., in the Wyalong- 
I'.ooligal country. 
Following is the first formal description of E. dumosa A. Cunn. The original 
will be found quoted at page 98, Part IV of my " Critical Revision of the Ucnus 
Kiu-alyptus," and here is a translation : 
A shrub, branchlets rather rigid, terete ; leaves coriaceous, firm, oblong or lanceolate, somewh 
oblique at the base, narrowed into a petiole, shortly acuminate, smooth on both sides, pale green, somewb ' 
opaque, iniperforatr ; umbels axillary, 3-5 flowered; ]..'iluii<-Ic terete or subangled, the same length as t j 
petiole; pedicels angular, shorter than the cupula; operculum coriaceous, subdepressed-hemispher 
