220 A CONTRIBUTION TO, ETC. 



that I do not see any evidence of such a visitation, although it is 

 by no means improbable, for in certain seasons, I have noticed 

 young gum-trees infested with Coccus and Cladosporium in a 

 manner similar to that which has prevailed in some of the orange 

 orchards near Parramatta, though probably the insect is of a dif- 

 ferent species. The age of these trees is another matter difficult 

 to solve, for although they grow for the most part very rapidly 

 at first, soon forming dense scrubs on land that has been cleared 

 and neglected, yet it is impossible to believe that any trees could 

 attain the astonishing height of 300 or 400 feet in less than 

 several centuries. We may imagine, therefore, that many of our 

 primeval forests are of older standing than the sable race which 

 was found roaming amongst them, and that in the unimproved 

 parts of the colony, they will continue to rear their lofty branches 

 long after the unfortunate aboriginal inhabitants have passed 

 away. The spotted gum (E. maculatd), the blue gum (_Z. 

 goniocalyx), and the red flowering ironbark* (E leucoxyloii) , 



Mr. Oxley, and pronounced by him to be a " noble lake," was nearly dry in 

 1836, and that " its northern margin, and a good way within the former 

 boundary of the lake, stood dead trees of a full grown size, which had been 

 apparently killed by too much water, plainly showing, like the trees similarly 

 situated in Lake George and Lake Bathurst, to what long periods, the extremes 

 of drought and moisture have extended, and may again extend in this 

 singular country." It is easy to account for the destruction of some species 

 of Eucalyptus, which have sprung up in places occasionally exposed to the 

 influence of floods, but it is difficult to explain, why a similar fate has befallen 

 trees beyond the reach of the water. Sir Thomas, in his course along the 

 Darling and Lachlan, remarked that the yarrah (E. rostrata) grew only on 

 the banks of rivers, lakes, or ponds, from the water of which the roots derive 

 nourishment ; but when the trunk itself has been too long immersed, the tree 

 dies, as appeared on various lakes, and in reedy swamps on the Lachlan. The 

 " goborro," or dwarf box (a tree covered with a rough bark, and never ex- 

 ceeding the size of fruit trees in a garden), on the contrary, seldom grows on 

 the banks of a running stream, but seems to thrive in inundations, however 

 long their duration. In the case of the trees to which I have alluded, they 

 are species which undoubtedly might perish from inundations, but many of 

 them were standing on the high ground, far above the flood mark. 



* The late Miss Elizabeth Macarthur is said to have planted a red-flower- 

 ing ironbark in the garden at Parramatta more than fifty years ago, and yet 

 the tree has not made more than a foot in diameter in that time. This fact 

 confirms the opinion I have formed respecting the age of the ironbarks in 

 general from a careful observation of the concentric circles of the wood. To 

 show how little some of our trees alter in the course of half a century, I may 

 mention that the blackbut on which the late Mr. W. Lawson cut his initials 

 with a tomahawk in 1813, still presents the letters as legible as ever. This 

 interesting tree, so intimately connected with the first expedition over the 

 Blue Mountains, is standing on the side of the Bathurst road at the summit 

 of Pulpit Hill. 



