810 BOTAIflCAL NOTES OX QLTEENSLAyD, 



the most interestiDg as well as the most valuable of the Eucaljpts. 

 The oil from the leaves has a most powerful odour of lemons and 

 may be used yet as a substitute for the essential oil. The leaves 

 retain their scent long after they are dry, though it gradually 

 becomes faint. When freshly gathered and bruised it is quite 

 pungent, shghtly stinging the eyes and nose. It is said by Mr. 

 O'Shanessy, that a pillow of the dried leaves is a remedy for 

 fever and ague. They are certainly a specific against the cock- 

 roach and " silver fish " insects, which are the great domestic 

 pests of northern Queensland. 



E. populifolia, Hooker. About the validity of this species 

 there was some doubt. Bentham regarded it as the same as E. 

 poli/anthema^ Schaur. However, Baron v. Mueller has given very 

 sufficient reasons for regarding them as distinct.* The tree is 

 very abundant about Kockhampton, where it goes by the name 

 of box. The blacks called it Egolla. But for the large leaves 

 which are very much like those of the Poplar, it is exactly similar 

 to the tree which goes by the name of Bastard Box through so 

 large an extent of Victoria and New South "Wales. The bark 

 is grey and persistent, not exactly furrowed but finely split so as 

 to show a very fibrous character. It is very much used by 

 settlers to make not only the roofs but also the walls of huts. It 

 strips off easily in sheets and is very suitable for buildings when 

 it has been pressed flat. A remarkable character in this tree is 

 the tendency to enlarge about the root, which often spreads so 

 as to form literally sheets of wood, or rises in huge tumefactions 

 or swellings on the roots and stems. This is also the character 

 of E. 'polyanthema (Bastard Box). As one is hurried across the 

 Liverpool Plains in the railway, it is worth while to notice the 

 number of trees which have these swellings upon their roots or 

 sides. Scarcely one will be found to be exempt. I attribute 

 the cause of this to the compact character of the bark which 



See Eucalyptographiae, 3rd Decade. 



