THE TIMBERS OF COMMERCE 



per cu. ft. Hardness Grade 4, compare Maple. Taste or smell 

 none. Burns well with a long, smoky flame and a slightly tarry 

 smell ; a brown juice is expelled by heat : embers glow in still 

 air. Solution pinkish, turning brown upon the addition of potash 

 with a copious reddish-brown ppt. 



Grain. Rather fine. Surface scarcely bright. 



Bark. " Ragged in appearance, thick, reddish-grey in colour " 

 (60). Grey above, brown internally, fibrous, dry, about inch 

 thick, separating in small scales. 



Uses, etc. " Strong, admirably adapted for the frames of 

 ships. Timber 10-20 ft. long by 9-16 inches square " (60). 

 " Like Rosewood . . . difficult to work as it breaks the edges 

 of tools " (in). 



Authorities. Laslett (60), p. 309. Smith (in), p. 331. 



Colour. Uniform, red heart-wood ill-defined from the i-ij 

 inches of lighter sap-wood. 



Anatomical Characters. As those of Metrosideros lucida (No-. 

 112), with the following differences: 



Pores. Regularly diminishing a little from the inner to the 

 outer side of the ring and rarely if ever having white contents : 

 size 3 : 5-12 per sq. mm. 



Rays. Size 5-6 and from 14-18 per mm. 



Rings. A little more definite and considerably clearer in 

 tangential section in alternate light and dark loops. 



Type specimens authenticated by the Forest Officer to the 

 Government of New Zealand. 



No. 114. PAPER-BARK TREE. Melaleuca leuca- 

 dendron. Linn. 



PLATE VIII. FIG. 71. 



Natural Order. Myrtaceae. 



Alternative Names. White Tea-tree (66). Paper-barked Tea- 

 tree (12). Bethar at the Mitchell River : Atchoourgo at Port 

 Curtis (5). Milk-wood tree (61). Swamp Tea-tree in New 

 South Wales (85). 



Physical Characters, etc. Recorded .dry-weight 47-54! Ibs. 

 per cu. ft. Hardness Grade 6, compare Beech. Taste insipid. 

 Smell when worked like Brazil nuts. Burns well with a short, 

 lively flame : heat expels resin : embers glow in the still air : 

 sometimes an unpleasant smell : ash, grey. Solution with water, 

 yellow : afterwards with alcohol, dirty white. 



Grain. "Close" (5). Fine to medium, open: sometimes very 

 sinuous, at others straight. Surface uniformly dull. 



Bark. White, easily detached, consisting of many layers of 

 filmy tissue like thin, transparent tissue-paper (i cell only in. 



132 



