186 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



de Chateauvieux observed it to grow 65 feet in six years, and it is 

 always of a more rapid growth than E. marginata, but less so than 

 E. globulus. It grew also with remarkable rapidity in British 

 GruianaJ^Jenmanj^X It is recommended as an antiseptic tree for 

 cemeteries in mild cliines. The timber is one of the most highly 

 ' esteemed in all Australia among that of Eucalypts, being heavy, 

 hard, strong and extremely durable, either above or under ground 

 or in water. For these reasons it is very much prized for fence - 

 posts, piles and railway-sleepers. For the latter purpose it will 

 last at least a dozen years, but if well selected much longer. Indeed 

 Mr. Speight reports, that sleepers were found quite sound after 

 being 24 years in use. It is also extensively employed by ship- 

 builders for main-stem, stern-post, inner-post, dead-wood, floor- 

 timbers, futtocks, transoms, knighthead, hawse-pieces, cant-, 

 stern-, quarter- and fashion-timbers, bottom-planks, breast-hooks 

 and riders, windlass and bow rails. It should be steamed 

 before it is worked for planking. Also largely used for felloes, 

 buffers and posts and any parts of structures, which come in con- 

 tact with the ground ; not surpassed in endurance for woodbricks 

 in street paving and for tramways. ' It would be quite remunera- 

 tive to rear on land too poor for ordinary crops in the mild zones 

 this and other Eucalypts with durable timber for wood-paving 

 blocks, even for export to colder countries, especially at noi> too 

 remote distances.. Next to the Jarrah from West-Australia this is 

 the besi JEJucalyptus-wood for resisting the attacks of the crusta- 

 ceous chelura and limnoria, the teredo-mollusk and white ants, and 

 it has the advantage of being consider ably stronger, proving equal 

 in many instances to American white oak. Weight of a cubic foot 

 of absolutely dry wood, from 53 J to 57|- Ibs., equal to specific 

 gravity O858-O932 [F. v. M. and Rummel]. According to experi- 

 ments by Mr. Luehmann and myself, it is surpassed in resistance 

 to transverse strain by E. melliodora, E. polyanthema and parti- 

 cularly E. siderophloia and E. Leucoxylon, though stronger than 

 the wood of many other of its congeners. Honey mainly from the 

 flowers of this tree proved of good quality. The kino of E. rostrata 

 is far less soluble in cold water than that of E. calophylla, and is 

 used as an important medicinal astringent. For further details of 

 the uses of this and other Eucalyptus-trees, refer to the reports of 

 the Victorian Exhibitions of 1862 and 1867, also to the ten Decades 

 of the Eucalypto-graphia. E. rostrata has become already spon- 

 taneous disseminated in Southern France, according to Prof. Ch. 

 Naudin, whose important " Memoire sur les Eucalyptus 1883 >T 

 should also be consulted regarding the characteristics, development, 

 hardiness and uses of Eucalypts. A great number of Red Gum- 

 trees in Gippsland are killed by the larvae of a nocturnal lepidop- 

 terous insect, identified by Sir Fred. McCoy as Urubra lugens. 

 They eat away the epidermis of the leaves on both sides, thus 

 asphyxiating the tree [A. W. Howitt] . It seems that other insects 

 affect also injuriously various Eucalypts in a similar manner. 



