Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus Volume 5: Parts 41-50
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Critical revision of the genus eucalyptus Volume 5: Parts 41-50 Maiden, J. H. (Joseph Henry) (1859-1925) University of Sydney Library Sydney 2002 http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/oztexts © University of Sydney Library. The texts and images are not to be used for commercial purposes without permission Source Text: Prepared from the print edition of Parts 41-50 Critical revision of the genus eucalyptus, published by William Applegate Gullick Sydney 1922. 343pp. All quotation marks are retained as data. First Published: 1920 583.42 Australian Etext Collections at botany prose nonfiction 1910-1939 Critical revision of the genus eucalyptus volume 5 (Government Botanist of New South Wales and Director of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney) “Ages are spent in collecting materials, ages more in separating and combining them. Even when a system has been formed, there is still something to add, to alter, or to reject. Every generation enjoys the use of a vast hoard bequeathed to it by antiquity, and transmits that hoard, augmented by fresh acquisitions, to future ages. In these pursuits, therefore, the first speculators lie under great disadvantages, and, even when they fail, are entitled to praise.” Macaulay's “Essay on Milton” Sydney William Applegate Gullick, Government Printer 1922 Part 41 CCXXIII. E. latifolia F.v.M. Journ. Linn. Soc. iii, 94 (1859). FOLLOWING IS a translation of the original:— A tree with somewhat terete branchlets, leaves sub-opposite or scattered, with rather long petioles, broad or orbicular-ovate, obtuse, glaucescent, opaque, imperforate, thinly penniveined, intramarginal vein very close to the edge, umbels terminal, paniculate, few flowered, peduncles and pedicels angular, these twice as long as the former (E. melanophloia, <&>c.). Fruits sub-campanulate, ecostate, 3–4 celled, flat at the vertex, valves touching at the rim. Growing in riparian level ground, at the upper part of the Roper River, 8th July, 1856. Flowered in the summer. A small or medium-sized tree, the bark, after the falling of the last ashy-coloured strips, is smooth and yellowish. Leaves 2–3, rarely 4 inches long, often 2 inches broad, with a petiole of almost an inch long, thickly and faintly penniveined as those of E. bigalerita (E. alba Reinw., see Part XXV, p. 96, of the present work). Umbels simply and compositely paniculate. Fruit about 3 lines long, the margin slightly bent back at the mouth. Valves included. I have not found the flowers. In habit similar to E. bigalerita, but in its characters rather resembling E. dichromophloia. In spite of his reference to the inflorescence, it was either not seen by Mueller, or he had lost it (see under E. Foelscheana, p. 8). At all events, it has been figured (fig. 2b, Plate 168) for the first time. The individual umbels have six to twelve flowers. The colour of the timber is red. Then Bentham (B.Fl. iii, 255) described it in English as follows:— A small or middle-sized tree, with a smooth ash-grey bark, tardily separating from the inner brownish bark, also smooth (F. Mueller). Leaves alternate, or here and there almost opposite, petiolate, ovate, obtuse, with transverse parallel veins, rather more prominent and not so close as in the allied narrow-leaved species. Flowers rather large, four to six in each umbel, in a large terminal corymbose panicle. Peduncles terete; pedicels terete, shorter than the calyx-tube. Calyx-tube broadly turbinate, four to five lines in diameter, rather thick. Operculum very short, slightly convex. Anthers ovate-oblong, with parallel distinct cells. Fruits globose-truncate or urceolate-globose, with a very short neck, smooth, and not ribbed, 3 to 4 lines in diameter, the rim thin; the capsule deeply sunk. Seeds winged. Range. The type came from the upper part of the Roper River, and Bentham adds “Islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria,” whence it was collected by Robert Brown about 1802, but what I have seen collected by that botanist on the islands belongs to E. Foelscheana. So far I have only seen specimens of E. latifolia from the Northern Territory and the big islands north of it. The Roper River, of course, flows into the western side of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Following are notes on Northern Territory specimens in the National Herbarium, Sydney:— “Grows on heavy soil and is associated with E. papuana and E. terminalis. The wood is soft.” Has the ordinary friable Bloodwood bark, Bathurst Island (G. F. Hill, No. 464). Mr. Hill kindly sent a photograph of this tree. Bathurst Island (G. F. Hill, No. 469). In flower, which is fragrant. “White bark, flaking off in places in strips. Conical fruits” (perhaps a reference to the narrow mouths). McKinlay River flats (Dr. Jensen, No. 388). “Bloodwood,” McKinlay River flats (Dr. Jensen, No. 390). Pine and Horseshoe Creeks (E. J. Dunn and R. J. Winters). “Bloodwood,” fairly large tree, near Pine Creek (C. E. F. Allen, No. 107). Note (a). “Bastard Bloodwood.” “Similar in habit to the Bastard Bloodwoods and Cabbage Gums identified as E. grandifolia and E. Foelscheana (narrow leaf tall form). The leaf is always stout and untwisted, but in the roughish bark, with red gummy splashes, and the crooked habit of the tree, it resembles the other two.” (Jensen, No. 385). Note (b). “Crooked limbed small tree, growing however in other places up to 40 feet high. Roughish bark except on branches where it is white and smooth. Stem up to 12 inches in diameter. Capsules in small terminal racemes. Leaves ovate.” Pine Creek (Dr. Jensen, No. 357). “Cabbage Gum,” near Wandi (Dr. Jensen, No. 383). “Bastard Bloodwood.” Roughish bark over most of the stem, branches often smooth. Near Wandi (Dr. Jensen, No. 385). “Timber pale red in colour.” Woolgni (Dr. Jensen, No. 401). “Broad leaf type.” Umbrawarra (Dr. Jensen, No. 411). “Stem like E. papuana.” Cullen River, Woolgni and Umbrawarra (Dr. Jensen, No. 418). The leaves with insect markings, like E. brachyandra F.v.M. Artesian Range, North-Western Australia (W. V. Fitzgerald, No. 1358). Between Bull Oak and Crescent Lagoon, track Cullen Creek (Prof. Baldwin Spencer); track to Cullen Creek, Katharine River, &c. (Prof. Baldwin Spencer) (with insect markings). Affinities. 1. With E. dichromophloia F.v.M. The original description says that E. latifolia in its characters rather resembles E. dichromophloia, and they appear to be closest related. Both are Bloodwoods, but E. dichromophloia has bark of a redder cast. Both have red timbers. The foliage of the two trees is usually very different,—that of E. latifolia being broad, while that of E. dichromophloia is narrow. Compare Plate 168 with Plate 165 of Part XL. The buds and fruits are sufficiently approximate to require care. (Reference omitted from p. 319, Part XL) (E. dichromophloia and E. corymbosa). It has been already observed that the large-fruited forms of E. dichromophloia display a good deal of similarity to E. corymbosa. The juvenile leaves enable us to emphasise points of difference. If we turn to Plate 161, Part XXXIX (E. corymbosa) we have juvenile leaves figured at 5, 6, 7a, and an intermediate leaf figured at 7b. The juvenile leaves of E. corymbosa are pedunculate, glabrous or with weak hairs; those of E. dichromophloia are sessile, stem-clasping, and scabrous. The intermediate leaves are a good deal alike, those of E. corymbosa being longer in proportion to the width, but the corresponding material of E. dichromophloia is not sufficiently abundant to speak finally. The juvenile leaves of E. dichromophloia (Old Battery, Eidsvold, Q., Dr. T. L. Bancroft, September, 1919) came too late to be figured on Plate 165. They are the first I have seen, to my knowledge. I cannot do better than say that I cannot distinguish them from some of the figures of E. setosa on Plate 158, Part XXXVIII. They seem replicas of figs. 5 and 8, and almost as scabrous. The mature leaves of the two species are, of course, very different, but the intermediate leaves of this specimen of E. dichromophloia are very broad and lanceolate, as broad as those of the juvenile leaves. 2. With E. Foelscheana F.v.M. See p. 8. 3. With E. corymbosa Sm. “E. latifolia has very broad even roundish leaves, and belongs, on account of its smooth bark, to the section Leiophloiae, unless this be subject to exceptions.” (“Eucalyptographia,” under E. corymbosa.) It is not correct to say that E. latifolia is a member of the Leiophloiae, although there are Bloodwoods with barks more scaly. We do not know the extent to which some of these tropical Bloodwoods vary in regard to the roughness of their barks. CCXXIV. E. Foelscheana F.v.M. In The Chemist and Druggist of Australasia, November, 1882. A DWARF tree, or only of shrubby growth; branchlets robust, not angular; leaves scattered or exceptionally opposite, on rather short stalks, ovate or verging into a roundish form, sometimes very large, always of firm consistence, blunt or at the summit slightly pointed, greyish-green on both sides, not much paler beneath; their primary veins very divergent or almost horizontally spreading, numerous and thus closely approximated, but subtle and therefore not prominent; the circumferential vein contiguous to the margin of the leaf; oil-dots concealed or obliterated; umbels four to six-flowered or rarely three-flowered, forming a terminal panicle; calyces pear-shaped, on longish or rarely short stalks, faintly angular, not shining; lid not so broad as the tube of the calyx, very depressed or sometimes conspicuously raised towards the centre, tearing off in an irregular transverse line, long retained and soon reflexed from the last point of adherence; stamens all fertile, bent inward before expansion; filaments yellowish-white, some of the outer dilated towards the base; anthers (when fresh) almost cuneateovate or the inner more oblong and the outer slightly cordate, all bursting anteriorly by longitudinal slits; connective reddish, with a slight dorsal turgidity towards the summit; style much exceeded in length by the stamens; stigma not dilated; fruit large, urceolar, not angular; valves generally four, nearly deltoid, inserted much below the narrow edge of the fruit, at last deeply enclosed; fertile seeds large, terminated by a conspicuous membrane; sterile seeds very slender.