BY J. H. MAIDEN. 727 



As regards its size, the reports of the early residents are 

 important, particularly as they were mostly taken from actual 

 measurements of felled trees. 



Lieut. -Govr. King wrote in March, 1788: — 



"The pines, which are very numerous, are of an incredible growth, one 

 of them which had been blown down or fell by age measured 140 feet, and 

 several others which we measured were 27 feet in circumference; they grow 

 quite straight, and not an exuberance of any kind whatever on them from 

 ye top to the bottom" (Hist. Rec. N.S.W., Vol. ii., p. 551). 



Under date 17th March he wrote : — 



" Felled a pine near it to saw into planks and scantling; its length is 115 

 feet and 2 ft. 3 in. diameter about breast high." . . . "I believe the 

 wood is nearly as light as the best Norway masts, and grows to a most 

 extraordinary size, some of the trees measuring from one hundred and sixty 

 to one hundred and eighty feet without a branch " {lb., p. 551). 



"The remains of two Pines, which were noted for their magnitude, and 

 were blown down in a storm, were lying by the side of the road. These were 

 called ' The Sisters '; they were nearly 200 feet in height " (Backhouse, 258). 



"On the northern ascent of Mt. Pitt a pine was measured 29^ feet in 

 circumference at 4 feet up " (Backhouse, 271). 



" We measured a Norfolk Island pine, twenty-three feet, and another 

 twenty-seven feet, in circumference. Some of them are nearly two hundred 

 feet high " {lb. p. 264). 



Dr. Metcalfe informs me that the largest tree he has measured 

 or heard of had a girth of 37 feet. 



The following notes from Backhouse's botanical MSS. are 

 quoted by Hooker : — 



" This stately tree is similar in figure to the Norway Spruce; but its 

 branches are in more distant whorls, and usually about five in a whorl. 

 The young lateral branchlets are deciduous, or, at least, they fall off in great 

 numbers. The two lips of the scales of the cone become united and form a 

 ligneous covering to the seeds; external to this is a lieshy, terebinthaceous 

 coat, containing a milky resinous juice; the cone resembles a globular pine 

 apple in form, and has the scales deciduous. Large quantities of resin, like 

 frankincense, are exuded from incisions in the bark. The timber is useful 

 for inside work, but soon perishes when exposed to the weather, especially 



