16 
No. 81. 
Eucalyptus obiiqua, L’Herit. 
The Broad-leaved Messmate. 
(Natural Order MYRTACE^E.) 
Botanical Description. —Genus, Eucalyptus. (See Part II, p. 33.) 
Botanical Description.— Species E. obliqua, L’Heritier, Sert. Angl ., t. 20, p. 18, 
with t,. 20. 
An immense tree, attaining from 150 to 250 feet, although flowering when 
young and small; with a very tenacious, rugged, fibrous bark. 
Leaves. —In the usual form mostly ovate-lanceolate, falcate, and very oblique at the base, more or 
less acuminate, 4 to 6 inches long, thick, with very oblique distant anastomosing veins, the 
intramarginal one at some distance from the edge. 
Peduncles. —Axillary or lateral, terete or slightly compressed, bearing each an umbel of about 
four to eight flowers. 
Puds. —Shortly clavate. 
Calyx-tube. —Fully three lines diameter, rather short, and tapering into a pedicel usually as long 
or longer. 
Operculum .—Hemispherical or flattened, very obtuse, shorter than the calyx-tube. 
Stamens .—Fully three lines long, all perfect; anther-cells diverging or at length divaricate and 
confluent at the apex. 
Ovary .—Flat-topped. 
Fruit. —More or less pear-shaped, truncate at the top, three to five lines diameter, slightly 
contracted at the orifice, the rim rather broad and concave, the capsule more or less sunk. 
(B.F1. iii, p. 204.) 
This is the first species of Eucalyptus known to science, it having been 
originally collected by David Nelson, assistant botanist on Cook’s Third Voyage, 
1776-9, and described by L’Heritier in 1788. At the time of its collection, and for 
long afterwards, Tasmania was looked upon as part of Australia; moreover, like 
other early species, it was badly described, and the specimens themselves were 
imperfect and not easily accessible. The result was that it was not recognised, until 
the sixties, that E. obliqua is the common Tasmanian Stringybark. Hooker, in 
his Flora of Tasmania , was not aware of its identity, and consequently in that 
classical work it is not mentioned, but a new species, E. gigantea, takes its place. 
In Part II of my “Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus” (Government 
Printer, Sydney, 1903) will be found a reproduction of the first illustration of this 
plant, together with additional notes on the botanical history of this species, and 
other details which are not reproduced here. 
