TIMBERS. 433 
It is called “White Ironbark,” or “Mountain Ash,” and is found 
about Braidwood, New South Wales. 
These variations in durability will be seen to be by no means 
the only instance of great difference in properties between timbers 
now included under the same species, and the question must 
sooner or later force itself on botanists—to what extent shall the 
properties of a timber be taken cognizance of in the determination 
of species? Difference in climate and soil are insufficient ‘to 
account for the utter diversity of some timbers now included under 
the same species of Eucalyptus. 
A log of “‘Messmate”. timber, from Adelong, New South 
Wales, is in the Technological Museum. It was obtained from 
a small tree (diameter, 15 inches), has seasoned fairly well, is 
easy to work, and is of a rich reddish-brown colour. 
The timber exhibited by Sir William Macarthur at the 
London Exhibition of 1862 (Cat. V.S.W. Woods, No. 40), and 
stated to be called in the Illawarra ‘‘ Messmate”’ and “ Warreeah”’ 
by the colonists and aboriginals respectively, belongs without doubt 
to this species. It is described as “A fine timber tree, very like 
stringybark, excepting towards the butt.’’ Height, 80 to r3oft., 
diameter, 3 to sft. This sample cannot be distinguished (as far 
as appearance goes) from the specimen of “Mountain Ash” 
used as a mill-wheel, and above alluded to. It is of a dirty 
yellowish-brown, light, easy to work, straight in the grain, and a 
good splitting timber. It has a few borers. 
EXPERIMENTS ON THE TRANSVERSE STRENGTH, ETC., OF THE Woop 
oF £. amygdalina, by Baron Mueller and J. G. Luehmann. 
The specimens were 2ft. long and 2in. square. (See p. 344.) 
| Deflection. Total | Specific Gravity. 
weight | Value of | 
| required | strength, | 
With - 2 LW canta Absolutely 
the apparatus] At the crisis | break each | § ~_____ | Air-dried. due 
weighing | of breaking.| piece. 4BD? ‘ 
78olb. 
Inches. Inches. Pounds. hi 
nie 65 2195 1646 1.645 ~.||-..878 
1g 70 2132 1599 1.076 | 908 
4 
25 
