86 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[March, 



will soon be when a plantation of English Oak 

 will be one of the most profitable parts of one's 

 farm. In less than ten years it would play no 

 mean part in fencing. 



Gum Trees. — At a discussion in New York, a 

 gentleman observed that one of the family of 

 Australian gum trees, the sweet gum, was already 

 prolific in the South. The Sweet Gum is the 

 Liquidambar styraciflua, almost useless for 

 anything but poor fuel we believe. The gum of 

 Australia is the Eucalyptus, of a family having no 

 relationship to the sweet gum. It shows the danger 

 of confusion in the popular mind of popular 

 names. 



The Black Spruce.— An admirable and ex- 

 haustive paper appears in the recently published 

 transactions of the Albany Institute of New York, 

 by Professor Peck on the Black Spruce. Not 

 only are its botanical relations considered, but 

 its history as a timber tree, and its position in 

 American Forestry are very fully treated of. 



Carolina Poplars.— English writers, and they 

 Are followed by some in this country, speak of 

 this as the "Black Italian Poplar." There are 

 two very distinct species. Both are cultivated in 

 leailing American nurseries. 



Virtues of the Eucalyptus.— It seems to be 

 now conceded that the chief value of the Euca- 

 Ipytus resides in its rapid growing and numerous 

 roots, which absorb so much moisture as really to 

 dry up ground but moderately marshy, and indeed 

 to prevent in this way the material action on ani- 

 mal life. As the tree cannot be grown where the 

 thermometer shows a lower temperature than 

 the freezing point, we might at least profit by the 

 hint to the extent of extensive planting of other 

 fast growing trees in marshy places that have an 

 unhealthy reputation. We fancy a grove of 

 cypress would be as health giving as though of 

 Eucalyptus. 



Value of Australian Gum Wood. — The 

 Rural Press, of San Francisco, thus speaks of 

 Eucalyptus wood : 



" It will be of much interest to our gum tree 

 growers to know some of the uses and qualities of 

 the wood in the region where it has reached its 

 best estate. In Australia ship buildei-s get keels 

 of blue gum timber 120 feet long; they also use 

 it extensively for planking and other parts of the 

 ship. It is considered superior to American rock 

 elm. A test of strength made between some blue 

 ^m, English oak and Indian teak, showed that 

 the blue gum carried fourteen pounds weight 



more than the oak and seventeen pounds four 

 ounces more than teak upon the square inch. It 

 is extensively used by carpenters for all kinds of 

 out-door work, for fence rails, shafts and spokes 

 of drays, and a variety of other purposes. For 

 railroad sleepers it lasts about nine years. The 

 wood is of a yellowish grey tint, with a close, 

 straight grain. 



" Nor is the red gum tree wood of less value 

 and utility. The specimens shown by Mr. Mackey 

 show its qualities clearly. Baron Von Mueller 

 gives the following careful description of the 

 wood : It is a hard, dense wood with a handsome 

 curly but rather short grain. It is almost en- 

 tirely free from the tendency to longitudinal 

 shrinkage which is the invariable characteristic 

 of all the other eucalyptii. It is of extraordinary 

 endurance underground, and is, therefore, highly 

 valued for fence posts, piles and railway sleepers. 

 It is extensively used by shipbuilders for maiu 

 sterns, stern posts, inner posts, dead wood, floor 

 timbers, futtocks, transoms, knight heads, hawse 

 pieces, cant, stern, quarter, and fashion timber, 

 windlass, bow rails, &c. It should be steamed 

 before it is worked for planking. Next to the 

 jarrah, from Western Australia, it is the best 

 wood for resisting the attacks of the sea worms 

 and white ants. Its possible uses are almost too 

 various for enumeration; as an instance of which 

 it may be mentioned that it is used with great 

 advantage and economy for the bearings of ma- 

 chinery, the cost being almost nominal as com- 

 pared with brass, whilst the material is equally 

 serviceable and almost indestructible. 



Catalpa Timber.— We believe people are not 

 generally aware of the great value of the Catalpa 

 for enduring timber. We find the following in an 

 exchange : 



" This familiar tree, says Landreth's Rural 

 Register, indigenous to the greater portion of the 

 Union, has been long known to a limited number 

 to possess wood of an enduring quality for 

 posts ; as lasting, it is claimed, as the black or 

 yellow locust — Robinia psued-acacia — but, for- 

 tunately unlike it, exempt from insect attack — 

 indeed, so far as our observation has extended, 

 it is not liable to disease direct or consequential ; 

 and as the tree grows readily from seed, there 

 need be no impediment in propagating it to any 

 extent desired. Fence rows, boundaries, lanes, 

 the roadside, impracticable plats of ground, inac- 

 cessible knolls, might each be seized upon for 

 planting this useful and ornamental tree." 



