of the Blue Gum of Tasmania, ce. 133 
The wood of the Swamp Gum, being of opener grain, and 
not so strong as that of the Blue Gum, is not so much 
prized; but it seems in the best varieties to be extremely 
valuable, and considered by some equal to Ash, by which 
name it is sometimes distinguished. It is very straight in 
grain, easily worked, and, except when very green, its specific 
gravity is always under 1000. It is sometimes used by wheel- 
wrights, and if properly selected would no doubt answer well 
for making oars and other articles now usually imported. 
The Stringy-bark,* as its name implies, has a fibrous 
rough bark, in thickness equal to, and often far exceeding, 
that of the Blue Gum; about one-third of which on the 
outside is always perfectly dry, and easily separable into layers 
and fibrous threads, very similar in appearance to the husk 
of the cocoa-nut: but, unfortunately, the fibres are without 
tenacity. The innermost layers are compact, like those of 
the bark of the other trees mentioned. The layers of the 
wood are nearly equal to those of the Blue Gum—rather 
more open; but when good specimens are placed by the side 
of Blue Gum, the difference is not readily perceived. ‘There 
are many varieties, however; some of them very inferior, and 
subject to what are termed gum-cracks. ‘These are fissures 
between the concentric layers, two or three of which seem 
sometimes to have been broken,—probably by violent gusts 
of wind, or other effects of weather: they are filled with an 
* The stupendous magnitude of the Blue Gum and Swamp Gum trees hav- 
ing been recorded, I may mention that on the north coast of ‘lasmania, a mile 
or two inland, and in the vicinity of the Cam River, I measured a Stringy-bark, 
which, at four feet from the ground, was 64 feet in girth: the tree was perfectly 
sound, and had somewhat the appearance of a squared log with the angles 
bevelled, carrying up its enormous column, which diminished in a finely gradu- 
ated proportion, to about 200 feet, where the trunk had been broken short off 
immediately above the projection of a large limb. The solid contents of this 
tree would be little short of 200 tons; nor is it a solitary instance of the 
kind ;—the species is therefore well named gigantea by Hooker jil.—J. M. 
K 3 
