200 . Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Eucalyptus Muelleriana, Howitt.* 



Gippsland, on sandy clay. Yellow Stringy bark-tree. Maxi- 

 mum height 170 feet, with a straight rather massive bole. The 

 wood is yellowish, fissile, free from kino-veins or shakes, clear in the 

 grain and very durable, used for splitting and sawing. Fence- 

 posts of this timber have lasted for more than 30 years [A. W. 

 Howitt]. It has been largely used by the Melbourne Harbor-Trust 

 for piles. Mr. C. Hodgkinson found the transverse strength to be 

 greater than that of any other Victorian Eucalyptus tested by him 

 except E. Leucoxylon, E. globulus 'and a variety of E. hemiphloia. 

 Regarding the various Eucalypts of Gippsland, consult Mr. Hewitt's 

 essay in the Transactions of Royal Society of Victoria, II., 81-120, 

 based on many years' local unrivalled experience. 



Eucalyptus obliqua, L'H&itier.* 



The ordinary Stringybark-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, and content with poor dry soil. 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, when no 

 great strength or elasticity is required. It is also employed for 

 sleepers of fair durability on the Victorian Railways. 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-dissemi- 

 nated, among the trees for new forest-plantations in barren woodless 

 tracts, with a view of obtaining a ready and early supply of cheap 

 and easily fissile wood. Main-root more straightly descending than 

 that of most other species. Weight of completely dry wood from 

 50^- to 61 J Ibs. per cubic foot, equal to specific gravity 0'808 to 0*984. 

 The young trees are sometimes used for telegraph-poles. The fresh 

 bark contains from 11 to 13 J per cent, kino-tannic acid; the dry 

 leaves, according to Mr. Maiden, produce about 17 per cent. This 

 and other Stringybark-trees, on account of their very fibrous cortical 

 structure, have to be specially guarded against forest fires. The bast 

 is available for the manufacture of packing paper. 



Eucalyptus ochrophloia, F. v. Mueller. 



Arid interior of sub-tropic Eastern Australia, on ground subject to 

 occasional floods. A tree seldom over 30 feet high. Wood tough, 

 serviceable for slabs, rails and rafters, but not lasting underground. 

 A tree recommendable for hot and dry regions. 



