1 78 iVZ'H^ SOUTH WALES. 



Cypress pine lias a pleasant odour — cainplioraceous_, or reminding one 

 of sandalwood. Many of the plants liave a most gorgeous figure, 

 almost too gorgeous, in fact, while others are so neat that they would 

 not offend the most refined taste. The chief drawbacks to this timber 

 are its brittleness and its inflammability. It chiefly occurs in the 

 western parts of the Colony. 



Beecli and Beech suhstitiites. 



It is an easy transition to pass from pine to white beech, which, 

 like most colonial timbers, resembles very slightly its prototype. Its 

 botanical name is Gmelina leiclihardtii, F.v.M., and it belongs tD the 

 Verbenacea?. It never was one of our most abundant timbers, and now 

 it is getting scarce in readily accessible localities. It is pale-coloured, 

 white with a tinge of brown. Its chief recommendation is that it 

 shrinks «o very slightly, hence it is used for verandah-floors. It is 

 valued for house-fittings generally, sliips^ blocks, wine-vats, &c. 



We have a number of timbers which are best known as colonial 

 beech substitutes, and some of them are in some respects superior to 

 beech. It will be sufficient to mention (1) Flindosa or Cudgerie 

 (Flindersia australts, R. Br. J a large tree found in the brush forests 

 of the northern districts, extending nearly as far south as the Hawkes- 

 ])ury ; (2) Various kinds of Blue-berry ash, or Pigeon-berry ash, and 

 belonging to the genus ELvocarpus. Most of them are distinguished 

 by their blue fruits. They are found in the coast districts, and give 

 a white-coloured timber of good appearance, bright looking, tough, 

 and easy to work. Every collection of timbers shows others, pos- 

 sessing much in common with these timbers, — white woods, rather 

 harder than soft-woods, and very generally useful. To what extent 

 they can be utilised, and in what abundance they are, can only be 

 decided as the forest trees become more familiar to the timber-getter 

 and saw-miller. These remarks apply also to an enormous number 

 of usually unfigured brush timbers of whose merits, and of whose 

 relative abundance we are at present but imperfectly informed. In 

 our luxuriant brush forests there are, I am fully convinced, very many 

 kinds of trees hiding, as it were, their merits, and promising to reveal 

 their true value only to the diligent inquirer. As there is hidden 

 mineral wealth, so there is hidden, unrevealed timber wealth. I have 

 already entered a plea for the fuller study of our timbers. 



Black Bean, Mycdl, cjr. 



What we might call our colonial walnut, the black bean, or 

 Moreton Bay chestnut {Castanos-jiermum australe, A. Cunn.), may 

 come next. It was greatly admired by its discoverer for its handsome, 

 glossy foliage, and its umbrageous, symmetrical character. It 

 produces its seeds in large cylindrical pods, which seeds or ''beans" 

 resemble in size those of the horse-chestnut of Europe. These seeds 

 are tempting to horses, and being eaten by them have caused their 

 deaths in large numbers from a form of indigestion. Consequently 

 station-owners on the northern rivers have waged war against it, to the 

 regret of the timber merchant, for it has been shown to be an excellent 

 .substitute for American walnut. It is somewhat capricious in 



