;206 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



should be steamed or carefully seasoned before -it is worked for 

 planking. It does not seem to have yet been fully ascertained 

 whether any rapid seasoning process of this or other timber by 

 steam affects the durability of the wood. This or any other timber 

 can advantageously be covered with sawdust to prevent warping and 

 cracking in exsiccation. In the Melbourne streets it has been used 

 for paving since about a dozen years, the wood-bricks being 9 inches 

 by 6 inches by 3 inches ; they are dipped into warm tar and placed 

 edgeways on cement. In Sydney and Melbourne together there 

 are now over half-a-million square yards of wood-paving, calculated 

 to last 12 to 14 years with the heaviest traffic [A. C. Mountain]. 

 Also largely used for felloes, buffers and posts, and any parts of 

 structures which come in contact with the ground. It would be 

 quite remunerative 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 not too remote distances. Next to the Jarrah from West- 

 Australia this is the best Eucalyptus- wood for resisting the attacks 

 of the crustaceous chelura and limnoria, the teredo-mollusk and 

 white ants, and it has the advantage of being considerably stronger, 

 proving equal in many instances to American white oak. Weight of 

 a cubic foot of absolutely dry wood, from 53J to 57^ Ibs., equal to 

 specific gravity 0-858-0-932 [F. v. M. and Rummel]. According to 

 experiments by Mr. Luehmann and myself, it is surpassed in resist- 

 ance to transverse strain by E. melliodora, E. polyanthema and 

 particularly 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. The oil of the foliage 

 of this species was exhibited by the writer in the Melbourne Exhibi- 

 tion of 1854 and the Paris Exhibition of 1855, and attention was 

 drawn to this resource in his report of 1853. 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 

 spontaneously disseminated in Southern France, according to Prof. 

 Ch. Naudin, whose important " Memoire sur les Eucalyptus 1883" 

 should also be consulted regarding the characteristics, development, 

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

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

 terous insect, identified by Sir Fred. McCoy as Umbra 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. 



*' f\ A - '' 1 



^Eucalyptus saligna, Smith. I 



Eastern extra-tropic Australia. Stems clear up to 100 feet occur 

 with basal girth of 26 feet. Hardier than E. globulus. The wood, 



