Page:A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland.djvu/53

 for some time been ignorant, was first published in the Hortus Kewensis, vol. 2. 157. The original species there mentioned is named obliqua, and a figure of it is given in M. L'Heritier's Sertum Anglicum, tab. 20; but the description has not yet appeared. Having lately received specimens from New South Wales of five more very distinct species, we shall now attempt to characterize them, first describing more fully that exhibited in our plate.

Eucalyptus robusta is one of the largest and loftiest of trees, frequently 100 feet in height; its wood hard, heavy and strong, of a reddish colour, and abounding with resin. Branches round below, covered with smooth bark, very angular towards the extremity. Leaves alternate, on footstalks, firm, smooth, with a strong rib and fine parallel veins, ovate, pointed, entire, generally oblique, and often a little unequal at the base, but not universally so. Stipulæ none. Umbels on flower-stalks, frequently from the axillæ of the leaves, and solitary, sometimes two or more together, forming a sort of alternate racemus, and sometimes such racemi terminate the branches. Bracteæ none. General flower-stalk an inch or more in length, compressed, two-edged, dilated upwards; partial ones about eight or ten together, nearly of the same form, but much shorter, single-flowered, dilated into the base of the calyx. Flowers yellowish, occasionally with a red tinge. Calyx obconical, sometimes round, often two- or even four-edged, entire; lid rather more than equal to it in length, swelling above the base, then suddenly