201 



Timber. A fissile, pale yellow timber, with no figure to speak of. It 

 has certainly no dyeing properties. 



It was first collected in 1828 by Charles Fraser, Superintendent of th 

 Botanic Gardens at Sydney, and Allan Cunningham, King's Botanist, ou 

 the Brisbane River. Hooker, in. describing it, says : " Its timber is found 

 to be very useful in various kinds of carpentry, and in the building of 

 boats, &c." (Botanical Miscellany, Vol. i, p. 247). So that it had acquired 

 & good reputation at an early date. 



Mr. District Forester Pope, Casino, says of it: 



It is not much used cither locally or for export, init I am convinced it is a 

 most valuable timber. It is very tough, and of a light yellow colour. 



Mr. W. Dunn, Forest Guard, Acacia Creek, Macpherson Eange, says : 



The wood cuts soft like Cudgerie (/'. t^cliottion'a). The timber is long in the 

 grain and strong, and inclines to be yellow in colour towards the centre of the 

 tree; of course, we have other varieties of timber here much yellower in colour 

 than this timber referred to. It is a really valuable timber. 



The official catalogue of the Queensland Forestry Museum, 1904, says : 



A large tree, with light-coloured, rough bark. Wood of a pale yellow colour, 

 and a distinctive odour. Chief uses for coach-building, railway-carriage frame- 

 work, boring-rods, and purposes for which strength, combined with lightness, 

 .are required : also cabinet-making, joinery, turnery, and picture-frames. It In 

 very elastic, bends well, and i.s consequently very suitable for casks. 



The timber is stated to be very durable and is tough; it is used for 

 making shafts, swingle-trees, and yokes. It is often mistaken for Beech, 

 and is sometimes supplied for that timber. It is an excellent carving 

 wood, as a beautiful specimen of carving in the Technological Museum, 

 Sydney, by the late Mr. W. Ockelford, testifies. 



A full account of this timber, chiefly from the point of view of the 

 railway carriage-builder, will be found; in MacMahon's " Queensland Mer- 

 chantable Timbers," p. 53. Here it is stated that: 



"It is largely used in the framing of carriages and waggons. It holds paint 

 well, and nails may be driven into it without splitting, close up to the end of 

 the scantling. In the works of the Brisbane Tramways Company this timber is 

 a prime favourite; it is used for body-framing, pillars, and finishing; it is 

 found to answer remarkably well for portions of the structure of a trarncnr. 

 which it is necessary to bend by steam, and has, in fact, supplanted entirely 

 the more expensive blackwood for this purpose. For an entirely all-round 

 timber it cannot he spoken of too highly, and quite fills the place of English and 

 American ash. A departmental board of the Commonwealth Military Forces 

 has recently decided that this is the most suitable wood in Australia for ammu- 

 nition boxes." 



Ki:<\ Height 80 to 100 feet, with a barrel of 4 to 8 feet in diameter in Mac- 

 liherson Itange. (J. L. Boorman.) 



Habitat. This tree is confined to the rich brush forests of northern 

 New South Wales and Queensland. What its precise southern and northern 

 limits are I do not know, and inquiries such as these are the legitimate 

 and even necessary duty of a Botanical or F&rest Survey. 



I have specimens in the National Herbarium from the Richmond and 

 Tweed Rivers, New South Wales, and also one labelled " Stroud district " 

 from the late Mr. Augustus Rudder, but I probably misunderstood him as 

 regards the locality. As regards Queensland, its range appears to be hardly 

 better known than at the time of its discovery ninety-six years ago. 



