85 
No. 90. 
Eucalyptus virgata, Sieb. 
A Virgate Eucalypt. 
(Family MY RTACF^E.) 
Botanical description.— Genus, Eucalyptus. (See Part II, p. 33.) 
Botanical description. —Species, virgata, Sieb., in Sprengel’s Cur. Post, 195 
(1827). 
The species may be described in the folio-wing words :— 
An erect shrub or small tree, smooth, or with a little ribbony bark, and pale-coloured wood. 
Juvenile leaves — Glaucous, lanceolate or narrow elliptical. 
Mature leaves. —Slightly falcate, lanceolate, taperirg to a (Inc point, 3 to 6 inches (commonly 
4 inches) long, with a twisted petiole of half an inch. Texture thick, very coriaceous. 
Equally green and shining on both sides, the midrib and primary veins often strongly 
marked. Intramarginal vein not far removed from the edge. 
Huils. —Angula-, operculum pointed, calyx gradually taper’ng into a flattened peduncle. 
Flowers. —Usually six to ten in the head, the former being a common number. Anthers 
reniform. 
Fruits.*- - Sub-cylindrical, about § inch in diameter, and about | inch in length to the commence¬ 
ment of the short petiole. Rim broadish, flat-topped, or slightly sunk. 
U'ulitat. —Port Jackson is the home of the type, p irticularly Middle Harbour. It occurs north 
and south of it for many miles in its perfectly typical form. It is, however, admixed with 
the blunt operculum form throughout its entire range. 
Varieties. 
1 . ohlusiflora var. nov. (Syn. E. oblusijlora, DC.) 
An erect shrub or small tree, smooth, or with a little ribbony bark, and pale-coloured wood. 
Juvenile leaves .—Broadly lanceolate, somewhat similar in shape to the adult leaves, only larger. 
Approximate dimensions 4 to 6 inches long by 1 j inch broad. 
Mature leaves. —Rigid, very coriaceous, ovate-lanceolate, slightly oblique, leaves sometimes blunt, 
sometimes hooked ; rarely 1 inch wide (usually |)> and U P to 4 inches or a little more long. 
The venation marked.f Colour of leaf pale or yellowish green, often glossy', and the margin 
often reddish. The intramarginal vein some distance from the margin. The transverse 
veins starting out at a fairly uniform angle to the midrib. As Bentliam puts it (R.F1. iii, 
189) : “ Leaf veins not close, often very oblique, but all inserted along the midrib.” 
* Although fruits were not preserved with the types of either E. virgata or E. oblusijlora, there is no doubt that 
most of the fruits of the pointed operculum series ( virgata) arc more sub-cylindrical than those of the hemispherical or 
blunt operculum series ( obtusijiora ), but nearly hemispherical fruits are found on plants of virgata , while sub-cylindrical 
fruits are found on plants of oblusijlora. 
f This is especially the case where the trees grow close to the coast. 
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