BY TKE EEY. J. E. TEXISOX-WOODS, F.G.S. 335 



of the Nogoa E-iver, not far from the town of Emerald. I have 

 never seen it except in the beds or on the banks of important 

 streams. Baron von Mueller has given such a complete description 

 of its characters, that I need add nothing here except the new 

 habitats in which I have observed it. On the Dawson Hiver it 

 is common, and also on the Med way at the foot of the Drummond 

 Kange ; I saw it also on the Pioneer Eiver under the main range 

 near Mackay. Again, on the Herbert it appears, on the Eoss, 

 Haughton, and more rarely on the Burdekin Elvers. I do not 

 remember ever having noticed it on the west side of the Dividing 

 Eange. It goes by the local names of Grey Gum, Iron Gum, 

 and Woolly-but, (far removed however, from the Is'ew South 

 "Wales tree of that name) and it is highly esteemed as a timber 

 tree. It was much valued for sleepers on the central railway, 

 but the plate layers told me that it was so hard that it destroyed 

 their tools. The wood is a dark brown and takes a beautiful 

 polish, besides being close-grained without any interstices filled 

 with gum. It is altogether one of the most valuable timber trees 

 of the tropics, in respect to size and the quality of the wood, 

 only it is not very plentiful. 



E. melanopliloia, F. v. Muell. On all the barren stony ranges 

 right up to the Mitchell Eiver, and even perhaps beyond, the 

 traveller cannot help noticing a stunted gum tree with deeply 

 furrowed black bark and pale grey-green leaves with a whitish 

 bloom upon them. These leaves are nearly round, opposite, 

 without leaf-stalks and stem clasping, a peculiarity which all 

 observers will have noticed belongs to the young state of many 

 gum trees. But however old the tree, the leaves always have 

 this form. Another peculiarity about it is that the rough deeply 

 furrowed black bark extends to the very small branches. Xow 

 in most Eucalypts the bark however rough on the stem becomes 

 smooth on the smaller branches, but it is not so here. The bark 

 is always rough and always black and coarse looking. I used to 

 think that this was a stunted variety of E. crebrci or the Iron 

 W 



