Pl. -i, -uses. [mod. Lat., as if f. Gr. *εὐκάλυπτος, f. εὐ- (see EU-) + καλυπτός covered, f. καλύπ-τειν to cover. The name, first given by L’héritier in 1788, was intended to mean ‘well-covered’ (cf. the Ger. name schönmütze); the flower before it opens being protected by a sort of cap (‘calyptra obverse hemisphærica,’ L’héritier).]
A genus of plants of the Nat. Order Myrtaceæ; the Gum-tree of Australia and the neighboring islands; an individual tree of this kind.
1809. Naval Chron., XXII. 388. The Thelaleuca, Casuarina, Eucalyptus.
1823. Syd. Smith, Botany Bay, Wks. 1859, II. 22/1. A London thief, clothed in kangaroo’s skins, lodged under the bark of the dwarf eucalyptus, and keeping sheep … is not an uninteresting picture.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 89. Upon the lower mammalia the oil of Eucalyptus appears to act precisely as it does on man.
1879. Temple Bar, Oct., 237. The sombre eucalypti … interspersed here and there by their dead companions.
attrib. 1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 309. s.v., One of the towns on the Australian gold-fields was for a time lighted by gas extracted from eucalyptus leaves.
1884. Syd. Soc. Lex., Eucalyptus oil.
Hence are formed the names of various products; as, Eucalyptene [+ -ENE], Eucalyptin [+ -IN], Eucalyptol [+ -OL]. (See quots.)
1879. Watts, Dict. Chem., VII. 2nd Suppl. 494 s.v., Eucalyptol heated with phosphoric anhydride gives up water, and yields *eucalyptene, C11H1.
1853. Pharmac. Jrnl., XIII. 79. Kino consists principally of a peculiar substance (*eucalyptin) analogous … to pectin.
1879. Watts, Dict. Chem., VII. 2nd Suppl. 493. *Eucalyptol, this compound is contained in large quantity in the volatile oil of Eucalyptus globulus.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 28 July, 12/2. Any preparation from which the slightest odour of eucalyptol is diffused.
