BY THE REV. DR. WOOLLS, D.D., F.L.S., ETC. 455 



and the wood is said to make better staves for casks than that of 

 Spotted Grum. It may also be employed for shafts, rough work, 

 and fencing. The specific name was given in honour of its 

 discoverer, Franz Wilhelm Sieber of Prague, who, in 1823, 

 collected many specimens of native plants in New South Wales. 



2. E. pilularis (Smith), the ^'Blackbutt" of the colonists, is a 

 large tree, extending from Victoria to Queensland, rising, in good 

 soil, to 100 or 150 feet in height, and sometimes even higher. 

 It derives its specific name from the supposed pilular form of 

 the fruit, and its popular name from the dark fibrous bark of the 

 butt. This species, though rapid in growth, is one of the most 

 valuable in the county of Cumberland, the wood being much in 

 use for building, fiooring-boards, and railway sleepers, and next 

 to the White Iron Bark, fJE. siderophloiaj, capable of enduring a 

 greater crushing strain than any other Eucalypt. The White 

 Mahogany fE. acmenoidesj was regarded by Mr. Bentham as a 

 variety of JE. pilularis, but this cannot be the case, as the former 

 has fibrous bark, (resembling that of Stringy Bark), wood difierent 

 in grain and colour ; and the young seedlings have alternate 

 leaves; whilst, as Baron Mueller remarks, '' It ranges over a 

 wider geographic area than the typical E. pilularis, extending 

 far into the tropical regions of Eastern Australia." There can 

 be no doubt but that the two trees are quite distinct, and, though 

 the reniform shape of the anthers and similarity of fruit have 

 caused them to be associated together, they must be placed in 

 separate sections. In favourable situations, the seedlings of the 

 Blackbutt are very numerous, all with narrow, sessile, opposite 

 leaves, pale underneath, and full of pellucid dots, though the 

 full grown leaves generally are not so abundant m volatile oil 

 as those of some other species. The specific gravity of the wood 

 is about 0-897. 



3. JE. hemiphloia (F.v.M.), or ^'Box" (so called from some 

 fancied resemblance to the wood of the European Box) is one of 

 our commonest forest trees, and indicates good grazing country. 



3F 



