199 
apiculatc, ribbed in rays, somewhat broade* and a little longer than the cyathiform and slightly ribbed 
cupitla and shining like it. Blades of the leaves 23 inches long and 6-9 lines broad, petiole 8 lines long; 
adult bxids with the pedicel 5 lines long, operculum 2 lines long. In shrub lands on New South Wales in 
Central Australia. A. Cunningham. Herb, ISo. 20C, 1817. Schauer in Walp. R?p. ii, 925. 
Botanical NaillC. Eucalyptus, already explained (see Part II, p. 34); dumosa, 
a Latin word for bushy. It, however, is usually a very big bush, and sometimes a 
small tree. 
Vernacular Names. It is often known as White Mallee, because it has white 
smooth bark to the ground; it is usually found growing in association with one or more 
other Malices. It is the " Ribbon Tree" of the Eastern Goldfields, Western Australia. 
(C. E. Lane-Poole.) 
Use Of the term " Mallee," Groups of the smaller species of Eucalyptus are 
known as " Mallee " (South Australia, North-western Victoria, and western New South 
Wales) and " Marlock" (Western Australia). In less favoured places, as in sandstone 
and granite areas, with shallow soils, the trees are more stunted and branched, while 
in alpine areas, but particularly in certain dry lands, there has been evolved this " Mallee " 
form, with a thickened woody root-stock, out of which springs, often radially, many 
thin, tough, bare stems of approximately equal diameter and length, the whole 
surmounted by a thin and uniform canopy. In the mountain districts, with sterile 
soil, the dwarf trees often take on a Mallee-like character, in which the thickened root- 
stock is almost more or less wanting. 
Those who desire to study Mallee growths and tuberous swellings of young Gums 
generally should see an especially valuable and well-illustrated paper " On certain 
shoot-bearing tumours of Eucalyptus and Angophoras, and their modifying influence 
on the growth habit of the plants" (J. J. Fletcher and C. T. Musson, in Proc. Linn. 
Soc. N.S.W., xliii, 191, 1918). 
Aboriginal method of obtaining Water. I have already touched upon 
this subject at Part LI, p. 14, of this work, and supplement these notes by one 
referring to E. dumosa. 
" On the Weir Mallee, a water-yielding tree, &c.," by John Cairns, Trans. Phil. 
Inst. Viet., iii, 32 (1859). This is one of the earliest uses of the term Mallee. There is 
an accent thus Mallee ; the modern accent would be Mallee. 
Tt grows upwards of 20 feet high, and scarcely differs in appearance from those around to the eye 
of a stranger, but easily to be detected on the brownish tinge of its leaves being pointed out. Our black 
immediately proceeded to cut a yam stick about 5 or 6 feet long, which lie pointed with his tomahawk, 
and then, tracing the roots by a slight crack discernible on the surface of the ground, he dug underneath 
it till obtaining space enough for the point of his stick, he pushed it under and then prized up the root as 
far as he could. Going further from the tree he repeated the operation until he had, perhaps, 15 or 20 feet 
of the root laid bare. He now broke up the roots into lengths of 3 to 4 feet; and, stripping off the bark 
from the lower end of each piece, he reared them against the tree, leaving their liquid contents to drop into 
a pannikin. On holding a piece of root horizontally no water is to be seen, but the moment it is placed in 
an upright position a moisture comes over the peeled part, until the pores fill with water which drops rapidly. 
B 
