380 AUSTRALIAN NATIVE PLANTS. 
Timber close-grained and hard, and takes a good polish. 
(Hill.) It is not endemic in Australia. Diameter, 14 to 22in.; 
height, 30 to 5oft. 
Northern Australia. 
94. Atherosperma moschata, Zadc//., N.O., Monimiacez, B.FI., 
v., 284. 
“ Sassafras.” 
The wood is very suitable for sash and door work. It is 
useful to the cabinet-maker also, for it has a dark duramen, and 
frequently exhibits a pleasant figure; it has also the quality of 
taking a beautiful polish. It is said to be peculiarly suitable for 
the sounding boards of musical instruments. It is close-grained, 
very tough, easily worked, and much esteemed for shoemakers’ 
lasts, and also for carpenters’ bench screws. Height, up to 100 
or 150ft. in Tasmania. 
New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. 
95. Avicennia officinalis, Z77., (Syn. A. /omentosa, Jacq.); N.O., 
Verbenacez, B.FI., v., 69. 
The ‘‘ Mangrove,” or ‘‘ White Mangrove.” The ‘ Tchoonchee” of 
some Queensland aboriginals, and the ‘‘ Tagon-tagon”’ of those of Rock- 
hampton (Queensland) ; and ‘‘ Egaie”’ of those of Cleveland Bay. 
Its wood, when small, is valuable on account of its inlocked 
fibre, for stonemasons’ mallets, and is used for knees of boats and 
vessels (Macarthur), also yokes for bullocks. The sawdust is 
particularly pungent and fcetid. (Guilfoyle.) Its weight is 58lbs. 
per cubic foot. In India it is by some considered a brittle wood, 
and used only for fuel. Major Ford, however, says it is used for 
mills for husking paddy, rice-pounders and oil mills, in the 
Andamans. (Gamble.) It discolours on keeping, and is very 
hard to dress, both on account of its chipping under the plane, 
and of the coarseness of the grain. It requires to be seasoned 
very carefully. A slab of this wood in the Technological Museum, 
which has been seasoned over twenty-five years (having been 
exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1862), has a 
weight which corresponds to 4glbs. 30z. per cubic foot. Diameter, 
2oin.; height, 20 to 3oft. 
