512 AUSTRALIAN NATIVE PLANTS. 
for heavy deck-framing, the beams and knees of vessels, and for 
planking above high-water mark. In Victoria it has been much 
used for railway sleepers, and various articles of furniture (Woolls), 
wheelwrights’ work (especially felloes), engine buffers, etc. It 
should be’steamed before it is worked for curving. The specific 
gravity ranges from .858 to 1.005, or from 53> to 625lb. 
per cubic foot. A ton of the dry wood has yielded as much as 
4lb. of pearlash, or 23lb. of pure potash. (Mueller.) The air- 
dried wood of this species contained, according to one experiment, 
4.38 per cent. of kino-tannin, and 16.62 per cent. of kino-red ; 
the latter (allied to Phlobaphene) is soluble in alcohol, but not in 
water; the large percentage of these two substances in £. rostrata 
is only rivalled, as far as known, by that of the hardest kind of 
Jarrah (Z. marginata). In Southern New South Wales it is 
invariably chosen for house blocks, and preferred for posts, etc., 
on account of its durability in damp ground. It is also used for 
slabs, rails, and wheelwrights’ work. 
A sample of this timber, sent from Victoria to the Colonial 
and Indian Exhibition, was tested by Mr. Allen Ransome, who 
reported: ‘The sample sleeper sent for trial, though a hard 
specimen, was readily adzed and bored, and a plank passed 
through the planing machine gave fair results.” 
Some Victorian specimens were examined for tensile strength 
by Mr. F. A. Campbell (Proc. R.S. Victoria, 1879). His results 
are 14,C00 to 21,500, 16,200, and 15,700lbs. per square inch. 
“The last specimen was at a disadvantage, not being hung 
perfectly straight. They all broke with a long fracture.” 
A variety of this tree is found in the extreme Western portion 
of New South Wales. Its average height is 30 to 4oft., and 
diameter, 1 to 2ft. Locally it is not considered of much use, 
except for firewcod. But the limbs and branches make excellent 
charcoal; a charcoal-burner “prefers it to any other wood for the 
purpose,” while a local blacksmith pronounces the product 
excellent.” Some specimens of this charcoal were sent to the 
Museum, and it is well-burnt, clean, and in every respect a good 
article. 
