38 TASMANIAN TIMBERS. 



improved steam communication, and the increased scarcity 

 of timber in the older countries, make it apparent that Ihecre 

 is an opening for the profitable employment of capital and 

 enei'gy in rendering marketable the various vegetable pro- 

 ducts of this State. There is a steady trade with the other 

 Australian States and New Zealand, and timber is also 

 sent to South Africa, to England, and the Continent of 

 Europe. Tasmanian Eucalyptus oil is sent all over the 

 world, but as yet the trade is very small compared with 

 v/hat it might be, and several industries are quite un- 

 touched. Pyroligneous acid and potash might be made, 

 also wood-pulp, besides wliich the distillation of essential 

 oils could be largely increased. One common tree, the 

 Native Box (Btfrsaria spinosa), pi the order Pittosporice, is 

 impregnated with a very fragrant resin, while the Oyster 

 Bay Pine {Frenela rhomb oidea) exhudes gum sandarach, 

 and the grass-tree (Xanthorrwa), a red reein which is used as 

 dragonVblood for staining and for making varnish. The 

 Tea-trees {Melaleuca and Leptospermuvi) and other trees 

 have very fragrant leaves, and contain both essential oils 

 and tannin. Many of the smaller trees, producing excellent 

 timber for a variety of purposes, are neglected and wasted 

 because they are so dwarfed by the giant Eucalypti as to 

 be considered not worth the cutting. Truly the Eucalypti 

 are noble trees, growing in serried ranks, with a smooth, 

 clean trunk, sixty, seventy, eighty feet and more (sometimes 

 over two hundred), without a limb, and from four to twelve 

 feet in diameter. The wood is hard, strong, and tough; 

 some very free, making excellent shingles and palings; some 

 witih the grain interlocked. They contain a resin which is 

 used medicinally, and is called " kino." The leaves give 

 Eucalyptus oil, and the flowers are full of honey. The 

 bark contains fibre suitable for paper, also tannin. The 

 wood is rich in pyroligneous acid, and the twigs and leaves 

 in potash and valuable essential oils. The seeds^ also are 

 marketable abroad. At present trees are cut down for the 

 seeds alone, or for oil or for timber; but it seems certain 



