174 
No. 109. 
Eucalyptus Muelleriana, Howitt. 
The Yellow Stringybark. 
(Family MYRTACE.E ) 
Botanical description. —Genus, Eucalyptus. (See Part II, p. 33.) 
Botanical description. —Species, E. Muelleriana , Howitt, Trans. Roy. Soc. Viet., 
1890. 
The bole is straight and rather massive, with moderately-spreading branches, and a fibrous and 
dark-grey bark, which is more deeply and coarsely fissured than that of E. piperita —in fact, resembling 
the bark of E. capitellata, where that species grows to a good size in favourable localities. The bark is 
persistent up to the small boughs, which are, more or less, smooth. The leaves of the aged trees are 
lanceolar, falcate, and more or less unequal-sided, rather dark green in colour, equally shining on both 
sides, and usually three to five times as long as broad, with a sharp apex. 
The seedlings have narrow lanceolar opposed leaves of a dark green, shining, but paler on the 
underside. In the earlier stages, they are frequently more or less beset with small tufts of hairs. I 
have noticed that the leaves are still opposed in young plants 2 feet to 3 feet in height. In young 
saplings, and those some feet in height, the leaves are rather broad, lanceolar, or ovate lanceolar in shape, 
less shiny on the lower face, much dotted with transparent pores, and rather thin in substance. A marked 
feature in the saplings of this eucalypt, and one by which it can be distinguished almost at a glance from 
those of other stringybarks, is that the broadly lanceolar and pointed leaves have a tendency to assume a 
horizontal position rather than a vertical one, and this gives the saplings a shining appearance. The 
stems of these saplings and young trees are somewhat smoother than those of E. piperita, E. capitellata, 
or E. macrorrhyncha. The umbels are usually solitary, and there is a marked tendency in the eucalypt 
for them to become strongly paniculated. The buds are from 3-12 in most of the umbels. The stalk is 
frequently slightly flattened, and not much longer than the buds, and the stalklet nearly as long as the 
calyx tube-, (he lid semiovate to hemispheric, smooth, ami occasionally slightly pointed ; the stamens (rather 
sparse) are large and reniform, like those of E. capitellata. Fruit almost hemispherical to approaching 
semiovate; the rim flat, or even slightly inverted, not wide, valves deltoid, small, and inserted, or, rarely, 
more slightly prominent; 4-valved, less frequently 3 to 5-valved.—(Howitt, op. cit.) 
Botanical Name.— Eucalyptus, already explained (see Part II, p. 34) ; 
Muelleriana, in honour of the late Baron von Mueller, Government Botanist of 
Victoria. 
Vernacular Names. —Called “ Yellow Stringybark ” in Gippsland, because 
the hark is very yellow when freshly cut; the timber is also yellowish. Occasionally 
it goes by the same name in coastal New South Wales. 
At one time I hoped that this yellowness (where evidence of its presence is 
available) might he a useful diagnostic character. It is certainly useful sometimes, 
but it breaks down in that it is observable in E. eugenioiclcs and other species. The 
presence of this colouring matter in various trees is worthy of investigation by the 
chemist, as it may he of some aid to diagnosis not clearly understood at present. 
