190 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



E. piperita. Rails used for 40 years could be re-used in new posts 



tA. R. Crawford]. Kino soluble in water as well as in alcohol 

 J. H. Maiden]. 



Eucalyptus ficifolia, F. v. Mueller.* 



South- Western Australia. Although not a tree of large dimen- 

 sions, this splendid species should be mentioned for the sake of its 

 magnificent 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 globulus, La Billardidre.* 



The Blue Gumtree of Victoria and Tasmania ; very rare in New 

 South Wales, extending however naturally to New England ; famed 

 all over the world, and, with many other species, in most places 

 first introduced directly or indirectly by the writer of this work, 

 at the Mediterranean Sea nearly 40 years ago, there by the aid of 

 Mons. Prosper Ramel. The tree is, among evergreen trees, of 

 unparalleled rapid growth, and attains exceptionally a height of 

 300 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 ari/1 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 transverse strain, the ordinary kind about 

 as much as that of Eucalyptus rostrata, and more than that of E. 

 macrorrhyncha, E. Gunnii, E. Stuartiana, and E. goniocalyx, but 

 did not quite come up to the strength of E. mellidora, E. polyan- 

 thema, 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 this timber in Melbourne is about Is. 7d. 

 per cubic foot, the weight of the latter when absolutely dry being 

 from 43 to 46 Ibs., equal to specific gravity 0'698-0'889 [F. v. M. 

 and Rummel]. It has also come into use for wood-bricks, the price 

 of which is at present about 4 per 1,000 in London. The felling 

 of Eucalypts for timber should be effected towards the end of the dry 

 season, when the flow of the sap will be least active, whereas ring- 

 barking, if that is at all admissible or desirable, should be effected 

 during the latter part of the cool or the earlier part of the warm 

 season, so that by exhausting the sap largely the least new shoots or 

 none will be formed from the root. Regular Eucalyptus-culture 

 merely for fuel would be profitable even in Australia on ground not 



