EUCALYPTUS TREES. 583 
might teach us whether the Silk Mulberry-tree can 
be successfully reared in the Murray desert, to sup- 
plant the Mallee-scrub, or what other utilitarian plants, 
such as the Fig, various Coniferee, Tanners’ Wattles,* 
grasses, etc., We may gradually establish there. 
Numerous Pines and other industrial trees have 
been secured for this country, not merely in a few 
specimens, but in large masses. The Nut Pine of 
Nepaul is brought thus at last before you. The King 
Pine or Dye Pine of the Himalayas I raised by tens 
_ of thousands; but evenif we had them by hundreds 
of thousands through our moister and higher ranges, 
it would not be too much. When even a bundle of 
firewood on some of our diggings costs already some 
shillings, the question of timber and fuel becomes also 
to us one of constantly-increasing moment, and thus, 
in a botanic garden, we should also give to this grave 
question some practical and enlightened attention. 
As regards deal wood, which naturally not occurs 
in our ranges, you will be cognizant that, within the 
last few months, more was consumed by the flames, 
raging through many of the forests of Canada and the 
United States, than would have sufficed to supply 
Australia for a generation. 
Again, I cannot imagine anything more interesting 
than a full collection of Acacias, of which Australia 
alone furnishes (Albizzia and its sub-genus, Pitheco- 
lobium, included) 300 species, all hardy here. What 
delight is experienced when, as the first harbingers 
of Spring, the early wattle-flowers burst into bloom, 
conyerting bushes or trees almost into one mass of 
.* Good Wattle-bark is three times as rich as Oak-bark in tanning princi- 
ples, and much quicker produced, and that in localitiés where no oak will 
thrive, 
