Saturday 16 February 2008

Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle serait très triste, aujourd'hui






Ce matin, dimanche, nous avions la plus grande excitation depuis longtemps.
Nous avons été bénis avec un peu d'amusement de la Dame Nature, quand un de nos arbres, "Stringy Bark", a décidé de se décharger de sa mortalité.
La tension de chaleur dans la base du tronc et de la pourriture sèche l'avait apporté au point de rupture. Avec un fabuleux, long et grand bruit de tomber en panne, l'arbre est descendu à travers la route.
Pauvre Sally dans la voiture rouge, avait conduit aux magasins seulement des minutes auparavant. Elle avait seulement manqué être écrasée comme un lézard mort!
On peut également voir Madame dans son petit camion, et la jolie dame du Canal 7 TV!
L'Eucalyptus Obliqua a la distinction d'être nos premières espèces d'Eucalyptus découvertes et publiées.
Il a été rassemblé la première fois en 1777 pendant la troisième expédition en "Terra Australis", par Capitaine James Cook.
Un spécimen a été envoyé au Musée Britannique à Londres, où il a été examiné par le botaniste français Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle.
L'Héritier a nommé le genre, le nom, obliqua, du latin, obliquus ("oblique"), dans la référence aux bases de feuille de la longueur inégale. Ainsi le nom et prénoms des espèces est, "Eucalyptus obliqua L.Her"

This morning, Sunday, we had the greatest excitement for yonks.
We were blessed with a little entertainment from Mother Nature, when one of our "Stringy Bark" trees decided to shuffle off its mortal coil. The heat stress in the base of the trunk, and the dry rot had brought it to breaking point. With a fabulous, long and loud crash, the tree let itself crash across the street. Poor Sally (in the red car),had driven to the shops only minutes before and narrowly missed being crushed flat, like a lizard on a country road!
Eucalyptus Obliqua has the distinction of being our first Eucalyptus species discovered and published. It was first collected in 1777 during Capt. Cook's third expedition to Terra Australis. A specimen was sent to the British Museum in London, where it was examined by the French botanist Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle. L'Héritier used it as the type species for a new genus, which he published in 1788. He named the genus Eucalyptus from the Greek eu ("good, well") and calyptos ("covered") in reference to the flower bud cap. He gave this species the name obliqua from the Latin obliquus ("oblique"), in reference to the leaf bases of unequal length. Thus the full name of the species is Eucalyptus Obliqua L.Her.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Madame
Waouuuuuu!!! You are a WONDERFUL lady!!!

dive said...

Strewth!
Monsieur B: You are a mine of wonderful and arcane knowledge and this is a hugely entertaining post.

And by the way, can that policeman look any more gay?

claude said...

Ouf ! Poor tree but happy red car !
This fallen tree looks like a beautiful and high arch.

Maria said...

I didn't know that your police officers wore such cunning little caps!

Anonymous said...

Why thank you, Anon.

Claude - I agree, the tree was rather majestic, the way it arched across the road. It's a great photo of part of our street.

Maria - I think the SA police uniform is very smart and the baseball cap is kind of cute isn't it?

Dive - those moustaches certainly make them look gay don't they? However, Andrew on the right, was anything but gay. Very yummy young fellow who gave me a cuddle which M.B captured on film. I rather like his gun.

M.B was interviewed and appeared on Channel 7 news last night - he's a TV star!! Perhaps he might show the tape to you????

Oh what fun on an otherwise quiet Sunday morning. The day became very hot though (39 Celsius) so the Council boys who came to move the tree had to work in scorching heat.

Trueblue Bob said...

The only time I missed watching Channel 7 News and I miss MB in his resplendent blue clobber describing the action in Aldgate... will insist on a viewing of the tape... such excitement in them thar hills!!

Jules said...

BY GUM - sorry for the pun but it seemed appropriate!!!

The policeman in the mustache looks like the guy from the movie Fargo!!!

Adelaide has a new celebrity and I think the new bridge across your road should be named after him - Benaut Bridge

Cheltenhamdailyphoto said...

he he Mme - you rather like his gun... snigger.

What a great set of photos and quite a bit of jumping about in the neighbourhood, i bet. Thank goodness it missed Sally. I should imagine she was quite shaken just thinking about that.

dive said...

Hee hee, Mme: Are you sure it was a gun he had in his pocket?

Karen said...

Oh no, I missed Monsieur on the news!! Typical! Can you Youtube it Monsieur and share your new found celebrity with us?

Michael Salone said...

Wow, looks like I missed the excitement there!! Did you have to pay for it to be removed or does the city do it? If it had damaged something would you be responsible? I'm just asking because you know it's always a legal battle in the U.S.

Terroni said...

Sexy boots, Monsieur! ;)