134 AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 



is close-grained and hard, and when dry heavy. It is generally sound 

 at the heart. The wood of the native pines of this province (Frenela 

 robusta and F. rhomboidea) are not durable, and are little used except 

 for fences or for fuel. The Banksia marginata, or honeysuckle, is occa- 

 sionally used for cabinet work, and the Myoporum acuminatum, 

 although soft, is tough, and forms excellent knees for boats. 



The late Dr. Schomburgk, director of the botanic garden, Adelaide, 

 from whose writings the foregoing account has been mainly derived, 

 remarks upon the absence of native edible fruits, " of which there are 

 Qone deserving the name except a few berry-bearing shrubs belonging 

 to the orders Epacridce and Santalaccce, Astroloma and Leucopogon, 

 the principal species of which, the native currant of the colonists 

 (Astroloma humtfusum} and the so-called native peach, with a succulent 

 per/ carp and a hard, bony, much pitted endocarp (the quondong), are 

 all 3outh Australia can boast of. There is also a deficiency in eatable 

 root-bearing plants." There is one of which little notice has been 

 taken the muntree. It grows along the ground, and produces a berry 

 of a size somewhat smaller than that of the ordinary Barcelona nut. 

 The smell and taste are strong, and like that of an apple. It may be 

 found on the banks of the Inman and Hindmarsh rivers, on Yorkes 

 Peninsula, and in many other spots where sandy soil and moisture 

 exist. The shoot withers rapidly when separated from the parent plant. 



One peculiarity of the eucalypti has not been noticed, and that is their 

 extraordinary vitality. As long as a strip of bark is continuous from the 

 ground up to the branches, the tree lives. Thus trees many feet in 

 diameter at and above the bole, hollowed out by the ravages of insects 

 or by fire, leaving cavities large enough to shelter several persons, live 

 and put forth their leaves as if nothing had ever occurred to inter- 

 fere with their growth. Dr. Schomburgk, however, points out that 

 when eucalypti trees die they begin to die from the topmost branches. 

 The leaves fall off, and nothing but dry twigs and sticks are left until the 

 end comes. The gum trees of all kinds are subject not only to the 

 attacks of insects which destroy them, but to the visitation of a vegeta 

 ble parasite called the mistletoe. It attaches itself to the branches and 

 hangs down in long pendulous vitiform bunches, and is not unlike the 

 mistletoe of the oak. When it attacks a tree the death of that tree is 

 only a question of time. 



The sandalwood tree, which grows in abundance on Yorkes Penin- 

 sula, is short, but produces solid and strong wood. When freshly cut 

 down it has an agreeable odor, which lasts for a long time, but becoming 

 more and more faint as the trunk dries. It is useful for many purposes. 

 It also does duty as firewood. Those who have read in Eastern tales 

 about chambers being scented with burning sandalwood, and imagine 

 that a perfume of a pleasant nature must be the result, would be com- 

 pletely disillusioned by the combustion of our sandalwood. This wood 

 is known even in China as a deadly foe to mosquitoes. This is not SOT- 



