POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 211 



ing -upon the introduction of new timber trees. Certain draw- 

 backs exist with regard to the timber of some of the more rapidly 

 growing hard-wood trees which have prevented their taking a 

 high place in the scale of values in mechanical engineering. 



One of the most useful soft-wooded trees in the world is the 

 kauri. It is restricted in its range to a comparatively small area 

 in the North Island of New Zealand. It is now being cut down 

 with a recklessness which is as prodigal and shameful as that 

 which has marked our own treatment of forests here. It should 

 be said, however, that this destruction is under protest ; in spite of 

 which it would seem to be a question of only a few years when 

 the great kauri groves of New Zealand will be a thing of the past. 

 Our energetic Forest Department has on its hands problems just 

 like this which perplexes one of the new lands of the South. The 

 task in both cases is double : to preserve the old treasures and to 

 bring in new. 



The energy shown by Baron von Mueller, the renowned Gov- 

 ernment Botanist of Victoria, and by various forest departments 

 in encouraging the cultivation of timber trees will assuredly meet 

 with success ; one can hardly hope that this success will appear 

 fully demonstrated in the lifetime of those now living, but I can 

 not think that many years will pass before the promoters of such 

 enterprises may take fresh courage. 



In a modest structure in the city of Sydney, New South Wales, 

 Mr. Maiden* has brought together, under great dilficulties, a 

 large collection of the useful products of the vegetable kingdom 

 as represented in Australia. It is impossible to look at the collec- 

 tion of woods in that museum, or at the similar and more showy 

 one in Kew, without believing that the field of forest culture 

 must receive rich material from the southern hemisphere. 



Before leaving this part of our subject it may be well to take 

 some illustrations in passing, to show how important is the influ- 

 ence exerted upon the utilization of vegetable products by causes 

 which may at first strike one as being rather remote. 



1. Photography makes use of the effect of light on chroma- 

 tized gelatin to produce under a negative the basis of relief 

 plates for engraving. The degree of excellence reached in modi- 

 fications of this simple device has distinctly threatened the very 

 existence of wood-engraving, and hence follows a diminished de- 

 gree of interest in box-wood and its substitutes. 



2. Iron, and in its turn steel, is used in ship-building, and this 

 renders of greatly diminished interest all questions which concern 

 the choice of the different oaks and similar woods. 



3. But, on the other hand, there is increased activity in certain 



* Useful Native Plants of Australia. By J. H. Maiden, Sydney. 



