124 SELECT PLANTS FOR INDUSTRIAL CULTURE 



that of E. rostrata in texture, but is of a paler colour and not quite 

 so durable. It is fully as strong, though second to E. Leucoxylon, 

 E. siderophloia and E. polyanthema in this respect, but equalling 

 that of E. Globulus. It is esteemed for wheelwrights' and other 

 artizans' work, in ship-building, and supplies excellent fuel ; the 

 young trees are used for telegraph-poles. 



Eucalyptus microcorys, F. v. Mueller.* 



One of the Stringy Bark-trees of New South Wales and Queens- 

 land, mostly known as Tallow- wood by the colonists. It attains a 

 great size ; barrel up to 100 feet in length, 7 feet in diameter. The 

 wood is yellowish, free from kino-veins, easily worked by saw or 

 plane ; it is of a very greasy nature, so much so as to be quite 

 slippery when fresh cut (C. Fawcett). This oily substance, very 

 similar to viscin, of which it contains about 1 per cent., prevents 

 the wood from splitting and twisting, though not from shrinking. 

 The timber is hard and durable also underground and employed for 

 railway- sleepers, wheelwrights' work, for knees and breasthooks in 

 shipbuilding, the young trees for telegraph-poles. The foliage is 

 remarkably rich in volatile oil. 



Eucalyptus microtheca, F. v. Mueller. 



Widely dispersed over the most arid extra-tropical, as well as 

 tropical, inland regions of Australia. One of the best trees for 

 desert tracts; in favourable places 150 feet high. Wood brown, 

 sometimes very dark, hard, heavy and elastic ; prettily marked ; 

 thus used for cabinet-work, but more particularly for piles, bridges 

 and railway-sleepers (Rev. Dr. Woolls). 



Eucalyptus obliqua, D'Heritier.* 



The ordinary Stringy-bark-tree of Tasmania, generally designated 

 Messmate-tree in Victoria, attaining a height of 300 feet, with a 

 stem more than 10 feet in diameter, growing mostly in mountainous 

 country. The most gregarious of all Eucalypts, from Spencer's 

 Gulf to the southern parts of New South Wales, and in several 

 varieties designated by splitters and other wood- workers by different 

 names ; most extensively used for cheap fencing-rails, palings, 

 shingles, and any other rough wood-work not to be sunk under- 

 ground nor requiring great strength or elasticity. The bulk of 

 wood obtained from this tree in very poor soil is perhaps larger 

 than that of any other kind, and thus this species can be included 

 even in its native country, where it is naturally common and easily 

 re-disseminated, among the trees for new forest plantations in 

 barren woodless tracts, to yield readily and early a supply of cheap 

 and easily fissile wood. The young trees are sometimes used for 

 telegraph-poles. The fresh bark contains from 11 to 13 1 per cent, 

 kino-tannic acid. 



