218 Linnaan Society. 



as for example, blue, black-butted, red, white, yellow, green, and 

 spotted Gum-trees. There is also a Flooded Gum-tree, a Manna 

 Gum-tree, and a so-called Mountain-ash, all belonging to the genus 

 Eucalyptus. Many of the species are of gigantic growth, and the 

 Black-butted Gum-tree in particular {Eucalyptus globulus, Labill. ?) 

 attains a size equal perhaps to that of any tree in the world. It 

 derives its name from the blackness of its butt, caused, it is said, by 

 exposure to the fires w'hich are so frequently kindled by the natives 

 in order to burn the grass and secure the game. 



The Manna Gum-tree {Eucalyptus mannifera) is also of large 

 growth, with widely spreading branches. Its manna drops in a 

 liquid state most plentifully in the summer from the flowers and buds 

 of the young shoots into the leaves, where it quickly becomes hard- 

 ened, and falls thence to the ground in irregular lumps. It has a 

 sweet agreeable taste, and is said to have all the properties of the 

 manna of the shops. The wood contains a large quantity of saccha- 

 rine sap, which soon becomes acid, and it is to this cause that Mr. 

 Suttor attributes the power of resisting lire, so remarkable in all the 

 Gum-trees, and which renders them peculiarly valuable in building 

 houses. 



Another species of Eucalyptus, the so-called Mountain-ash, which 

 grows in the Blue Mountains, is a very fine timber-tree, which splits 

 freely into long pieces and is brought to Paramatta for chair-rafts, 

 &c. Its wood is very strong and elastic, and said to be equal in 

 those respects to any wood in the world. 



The Forest-mahogany of the colonists (^Eucalyptus robusta. Smith) 

 has strong large spreading branches, forming a very large head, and 

 sweet-scented flowers. Its wood is heavy and close-grained, resem- 

 bles the mahogany of Jamaica, and is used in Sydney for making 

 chairs and bedsteads. 



The timber-trees not belonging to the order Myrtacea consist of 

 a few species of Conifer a, the Casuar'uKE, and the so-called Cedar 

 (Cedrela Toona, Roxb.), the wood of which very much resembles the 

 Honduras mahogany, and is very valuable to the colonists in fitting 

 up their houses, making furniture, &c. The tree is of large growth, 

 and has not been found in the interior, but generally on the low 

 grounds of the coast rivers. 



December 5. — E. Forster, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 

 Mr. Westwood, F.L.S., exhibited a box of CEstrideous insects re- 

 cently received from Professors Zetterstedt and Dahlbom, with the 

 view of determining the correctness of Mr. Bracy Clarke's conjecture 

 as to certain characters, which, in his memoir published in the last 

 Part of the ' Transactions' of this Society, he had regarded as sexual, 

 and as proving that the Oestrus Tai-andi and (E. Trompe are sexes of 

 the same species. Mr. Westwood stated that this collection con- 

 tained both sexes of each of these species, and that it would conse- 

 quently be necessary to reinstate these two species as well as several 

 others,' which, on the same account, Mr. B. Clarke had sunk in his 

 memoir. 



