204 On Norfolk Iskmd, 



turnery. Beautiful specimens of this work, executed in \hm 

 wood, were sent from Tasmania to the Paris Exhibition. 

 These pine-knots, when defective, serve another very useful 

 purpose. They make excellent fuel, and, on account of the 

 rich hydro-carbons with which they are charged, burn with 

 the brightness and persistence of the best English coal. 



Eor economical purposes, the iron-wood, Noteloea lonyi- 

 folia,* or Olea Apetala,-^ is the most important and valuable 

 of the indigenous timber-trees of Norfolk Island. It yields 

 a fine, close-grained wood, very hard and durahle. This is 

 chiefly employed in wheelwright's work, but may be used 

 with advantage by the cabinet-maker, as some specimens ar& 

 remarkably well veined. 



Among the many ornamental woods obtained from this- 

 ocean isle should be enumerated the rose-wood, believed to 

 be a species of acacia, the beech, (so called), the maple, Acer 

 Do J?;?^a(?), the hop-wood, obtained from the i)ore?o^«aor/(?;?- 

 talis,X the hard yellow- wood, from iheBlackhurnia jmmata, 

 the white-wood, and the cherry-tree, — a species of Execar- 

 pus ; the bark of this latter, rich in tannin, has been used 

 in making leather. 



Pursuing our investigation of the vegetable kingdom, we 

 come to what is locally called the White Oak, the Hibiscus^ or 

 Laffunea Paiersonii. It is perhaps the largest plant known 

 to exist, belonging to the Malvaceae, or MalloVif Tribe, At- 

 taining sometimes an elevation of sixty or eighty feet, and 

 displaying a profusion of large pink flowers with leaves of 

 Avhitish green, it would form an elegant addition to the 

 shrubbery. In an economic point of view it is valueless, 

 except for firewood. 



* Koppel, vol. ii., 283. 



f Tasmanian Contributions to the Paris Exhibition, p. 4S. 



X Query — Dodonea, sp. :— Ed, 



