in Extra-Tropical Countries.- 135 



Eucalyptus Doratoxylon, F. v. Mueller. 



The Spearwood-tree of South- Western Australia, where it occurs in 

 sterile districts. The stem is slender and remarkably straight, and the 

 wood of such firmness and elasticity, that the nomadic natives wander 

 long distances, to obtain it as a material for their spears. 



Eucalyptus eugenioides, Sieber. 



One of the Stringybark-trees of Victoria and New South Wales. 

 The tree is abundant in some localities, and attains considerable 

 dimensions. Its useful fissile wood is employed for fencing- and 

 building-purposes. Systematically the species is closely allied to 

 E. piperita. 



Eucalyptus ficifolia, F. v. Mueller.* 



South- Western Australia.' Although not a tree of large dimensions, 

 this splendid species should be mentioned for the sake of its magni- 

 ficent trusses of crimson flowers, irrespective of its claims as a shady, 

 heat-resisting avenue-tree, not standing in need of watering. It bears 

 a close resemblance to E. calophylla. 



Eucalyptus gflobulus, La Billardiere.* 



The Blue Gumtree of Victoria and Tasmania, famed all over the 

 world. The tree is, among evergreen trees, of unparalleled rapid 

 growth, and attains exceptionally a height of 350 feet, furnishing a 

 first-class wood. Ship-builders can get keels of this timber 120 feet 

 long ; besides this, they use it extensively for planking and many 

 other parts of the ship. Experiments on the strength of various 

 woods, instituted by Mr. Luehmann and the author, proved the wood 

 of the Blue Gumtree in average of eleven tests to be about equal to 

 the best English oak, American white oak and American ash. The 

 best samples indeed carried as great a weight as hickory in trans- 

 verse strain, the ordinary kind about as much as that of Eucalyptus 

 rostrata, and more than that of E. macrorrhyncha, E. Gunnii, E. 

 Sturtiana and E. goniocalyx, but did not come quite up to the strength 

 of JE. melliodora, E. polyanthema, E. siderophloia and E. Leucoxylon. 

 Bluegum-wood is also very extensively used by carpenters for all 

 kinds of out-door work, joists and studs of wooden houses ; also for 

 fence-rails, telegraph-poles, railway-sleepers (lasting nine years or 

 more), for shafts and spokes of drays and a variety of other purposes. 

 Mr. W. Tait, of Oporto, has recommended the wood for wine-casks, 

 these requiring no soaking. The price of the timber in Melbourne is 

 about Is. 7d. per cubic foot. In South-Europe the E. globulus has 

 withstood a temperature of 19 F., but succumbed at 17 F.; it 

 perished from frost at the Black Sea and in Turkestan, when young, 

 according to Dr. Hegel. The sirocco, however, does not destroy it. 

 In Jamaica it attained 60 feet in seven years, on the hills ; in Cali- 

 fornia it grew 60 feet in eleven years, in Florida 40 feet in four years, 

 with a stem of 1 foot in diameter. In some parts of India its growth 

 has been even more rapid ; at the Nilgiri-Hills it has been reared 

 advantageously, where E. marginata, E. obliqua, E. robusta and E. 



