SOME SPECIMENS OF AUSTRALIAN FAUNA AND FLORA. 199 



which was constructed thirty years ago of jarrah, showed that the piles 

 were as sound as the day they were put in, although the seas of Java swarm 

 with the Teredo navalis. The official examination made by a select committee 

 of Parliament in South Australia, in 1870, of the Port Adelaide bridge, erected 

 in 1858, disclosed the fact that while every other timber employed below 

 water ' had been completely destroyed by the teredo and other submarine 

 insects, the jarrah remained unscathed,' and had apparently saved the work 

 from collapse. In point of beauty many award the palm amongst the gums 

 to the Eucalyptus jicifolia, or scarlet flowering gum. It is met with in groups. 

 The tufts of bright scarlet blossom contrast well with the dark-green foliage, 

 and the tree adds greatly to the attraction of the West Australian bush. 



The mallee (Eucalyptus dumosa) is one of the strangest products of a 

 strange country. The root is a globular mass, varying in size from a child's 

 head to a huge mass which a man can hardly carry. From this bulb a tap 

 root descends to a great depth to reach moist ground below, while other 

 roots spread more horizontally. Above ground a few saplings shoot out to 

 a maximum height of about twenty feet, each sapling having a tuft of leaves 

 at its top. The appearance is that of a skeleton umbrella, with the central 

 stick or handle removed. No surface water is to be obtained in the mallee 

 district ; its silence is only disturbed by the melancholy wail of the dingo. 

 Miserable is the fate of the luckless wretch who wanders into such tracts as 

 these. Unable to discern his way, or to gain any point of vantage, and 

 suffering from thirst, the man's reason often succumbs, and he perishes a 

 maniac. Yet the Victorian mallee district is now being cleared by energetic 

 colonists, who aver that when they have exterminated the rabbit, and 

 poisoned the dingo, and got rid of the scrub — which succumbs to treatment 

 — these plains will prove the most fertile in Australia. 



Here allusion may be made to the question whether or not the 

 eucalyptus is a fever- destroying tree. The subject has been thoroughly 

 investigated and discussed by Mr. Joseph Bosisto, M.P., Commissioner for 

 Victoria at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886, and his decision is in 

 favour of the utility of the eucalypt. Mr. Bosisto dwells specially upon the 

 fact that malarious diseases are not native to Australia, and that imported 

 fevers are believed to diminish in virulence ; and he directly connects the 

 absence of malarious disease with the presence of a peculiar aroma-diffusing 

 vegetation. Mr. Bosisto mentions the powerful root action of the eucalyptus, 

 which, being an evergreen, is continually at work, absorbing humidity from 

 the earth, and upon its large leaf exudation of oil and acid. His contention 

 is that the volatile oil thrown off by the eucalyptus absorbs atmospheric 

 oxygen, and transforms it into ozone. This much is certain : that if a small 

 quantity of any of the eucalyptus oils be sprinkled in a sick room, the 

 pleasure of breathing an improved air is realised at once. And as Mr. 

 Bosisto contends that he has established the diffusion of volatile oil by the 



