BY J. H. MAIDEN AND E. BETCHE. 373 



bably only west of the northern railway line, from about 30° S. 

 lat. extending northward far into Queensland. It is perhaps the 

 most interesting species of the interesting genus Casuarina on 

 account of the thick medullary rays of the timber, quite unique 

 in the vegetable kingdom. 



Mr. Bailey writes of this species in his * Catalogue of the 

 Woods of Queensland' (Melb. Exhib. 1888) -"Wood very 

 beautiful, of a reddish colour, but with numerous dark marks." 

 These dark marks are the medullary rays, which appear in the cross- 

 section as thick dark lines from just above 1 to IJmm. in thick- 

 ness, radiating from the centre to the bark and penetrating even 

 half-way through the fibrous bark, where they form partition- 

 walls between which the fibres are packed. In the tangential 

 cut the medullary rays appear as interrupted perpendicular thick 

 lines, and in the radial cut as large, irregular blotches. The 

 fibrous bark is also quite unique in the genus, and is the most 

 conspicuous character from which the specific name is derived. 

 Mueller and Bailey point out in the original description of the 

 species that the tree to which Leichhardt refers ('Overland 

 Expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington,' p.49) in the 

 following words — " I met (in the gullies on Robinson's Creek, 

 Expedition Range) with a new species of Forest Oak, which 

 deserves the name villosa, for its bark looks quite villous " is 

 probably this species, because the bark of no other Casuarina 

 known could possibly be called villous. 



Mr. Boorman describes the habit of the tree at Warialda as — 

 " A tree 8 to 16 feet high, with pendulous branches and ribbony 

 bark not readily separable from the stem, as is the case in the 

 stringy-barks of Eucalyptus. The general character of the plant 

 is like C. distyla, stooling in habit in the early stage, eventually 

 growing into a single stem generally much crooked and branched, 

 with a wide spreading top. It grows on dry ironstone ridges, in 

 the poorest land." The piece of stem brought home by Mr. 

 Boorman is 2J feet long by 9 inches in diameter, but even such 

 short straight pieces of stem are rare, so that it would be very 

 difficult to procure a good supply of this remarkable wood for 

 cabinet-making purposes. 



