EUCALYPTUS MAKGINATA. 



effect, tliougli the wood is too heavy for any but massive designs. Some of the protuberances 

 from the trunks and branches are of an immense size and furnish slabs rivalling in beauty the 

 finest specimens of Walnut or Pollard-Oak ; they require however a great deal of time in 

 seasoning before they can be made up, after being cut into slabs ; it is not unusual to find such 

 protuberances from 6 to 10 feet in diameter. 



'•' I have drawn attention more particularly to timber intended for heavy works, such as sea- 

 facing, dock-lining, foundations and bed-blocks for machinery. It is however equally suitable for 

 all building purpioses, framing, quartering, weather-boarding, planking, floorings, ceilings, 

 hallusters, railings and fencing ; it forms also durable cross-cut blocks for roadways and paths, 

 easily laid and bedded in common sand. Sawn into shingles this wood makes a good, cool, light 

 roof-covering, weighing about 450 lbs. per 100 square feet ; these shingles set on sawn battens 

 with wire-nails stand the roughest weather without stripping. There are many roofs in the colony 

 of West-Australia covered with them, and in the course of more than twenty years they have 

 required little or no repair ; while white ants, so destructive to most kinds of timber, will not 

 touch it, and the astringent principle in it is sufficiently strong to destroy even mice that gnaw 

 it. It is one of the least inflammable of woods, a quality of great importance for wooden 

 buildings in hot climes. The specific gravity of the timber averages about 1-12 ; if well dried, 

 small scantlings will float in the sea, but when saturated will sink. Specimens direct from the 

 mill will weigh from 71 to 76 lbs. per cubic foot." 



Mr. Thomas Laslett gives the sjiecific gravity as I'OIO ; in transverse strain he found that a 



piece 7 feet long and 2 inches square, with the weight suspended in the middle, broke under a 



load of 586f lbs., with a deflection of 4'71 inches at the crisis of breaking (average of six trials) ; 



/L X W\ 

 this would give for S I . p^^., I 1,800. In vertical or crushing strain it supported a weight of 



7,164 lbs. per square inch (average of six experiments), English Oak bearing from 4,480 lbs. to 

 7,978 lbs. 



Mr. James Manning, Clerk of Works at Fremantle, found the transverse strength to be from 

 S 927 (average of eight trials) to S 1,140 (average of eight more trials). — Perth Inquirer, 1854. 



My own experiments on the strength of difli'erent Eucalyptus-woods gave results varying from 

 S 1,332 for E. obliqua to S 3,144 for the best E. Leucosylon. The specific gravity of Jarrah-wood 

 I found to be in average 64 lbs. per cubic foot of well-seasoned timber. Some other trials 

 instituted by us here on thoroughly air-dried wood gave '970 for the hard variety and "820 for the 

 soft variety of the wood of E. marginata. 



The above observations will serve to show, that Jarrah-timber is unsurpassed as regards 

 durability, that it is worked with greater ease than most other Eucalyptus-woods, but that it does 

 not equal the timber of many congeners in strength ; our own Eed Gum-wood (of E. rostrata), 

 which is nearly or perhaps quite as lasting as Jarrah, surpasses it considerably in endurance of 

 transverse strain, and the also very durable Ironbark-wood (of E. Leucoxylon) is more than twice 

 as strong on an average {vide tables under E. globulus), so far as we have observed here in local 

 experiments. 



In my " Report on the Forest-resources of Western Australia," famished after a tour for 

 special research, it is stated already, that the timber of E. marginata, when judiciously selected 

 from hilly localities, when cut while the circulation of the sap (during the autumn) is least active, 

 and when dried with proper care, proves impervious to the borings of the marine crustaceous 



