286 AUSTRALASIAN FORESTS. [Sept. 



in height and bearing numerous cones, — abundantly testifies to the 

 mild and genial nature of the climate at Whittinghame. 



There is here also a venerable yew tree of enormous dimensions. 

 The stem is little more than 10 feet high, to where the branches 

 are given off, the circumference being nearly the same. The 

 branches, however, have a radius of about 100 yards, many of them 

 having now become rooted into the ground, thus forming an immense 

 bank of the densest foliage, and completely covering the raised knoll 

 on which the tree is planted. Tradition loves to linger round most 

 of the old yews in this country, and the venerable tree at Whitting- 

 hame is no exception. The story runs that Bothwell and the other 

 Scottish nobles opposed to Darnley, the husband of the ill-fated 

 Mary Queen of Scots, repaired to the sequestered shade of this very 

 tree, where they formally entered into a covenant to compass 

 Darnley's death. Be this as it may, the tree is certainly old enough 

 to have rendered this possible. E. L. 



AUSTRALASIAN FORESTS. 



BY HEXEY F. MOOEE, FROME, SOJIEESET. 



OIO much of the Australian continent remains unexplored that 

 VO the approximate area of its forest lands cannot be even con- 

 jectured. One thing is certain, however, and that is, that a much 

 smaller portion of its surface relatively speaking is wooded than was 

 the case on the North American continent when it was first colonized 

 by Europeans. Nevertheless, it and the neighbouring islands of 

 Tasmania and New Zealand contain immense forests of valuable 

 timber for both constructive and ornamental purposes. These are 

 described in a recent report to the American Government. There 

 are 150 varieties of the Eucalyptus or gum tree, some of them 

 attaining a gigantic height, as, for example, the Eucalyptus amygdalina, 

 which has been known to reach an altitude of 480 feet. The 

 specific gravity of the Eucalyptus rostrata, or red gum, which is 

 largely used for railway sleepers, nearly equals that of the oak, 

 while it is capable of sustaining a much greater pressure to the 

 square inch than either oak or teak. In point of durability the 

 harder varieties of the Eucalyptus will last four times as long as 

 the former. Many of the Australian trees, as, for example, the 

 Eucalyjptus hotryoidcs, the Cedrela toona, the black-wood, and the 

 Frenela endlicheri, or cypress pine, and the numerous indigenous 

 cedars, are beautiful in grain and colour, and take a fine polish. 

 The Kauri pine of New Zealand, which, with a diameter at the base 

 rauging from 10 to 20 feet, attains to the height of 160 feet, 



