114 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



upon both of them ; (this, in South America, is 

 largely eaten by the inhabitants of Terra del 

 Fuego). Intermingled with the Myrtles are found, 

 singly or in patches, a number of peculiar forest 

 Conifers belonging to genera either confined to 

 Tasmania or else extending through the Austral- 

 asian region to the East Indies and New Zealand. 

 The finest of these trees is the Celery-topped Pine 

 (Phyllocladus rhomhoidalis), a large Conifer be- 

 longing to the Yews or Taxineae, and not resem- 

 bling a Pine at all, attaining fifty or sixty feet 

 in height. It is shaped rather like a celery plant, 

 with the lateral twigs of the branches expanded 

 into flat leaf-like organs, while the true leaves 

 are represented by small scales closely applied 

 to the branches (Fig. 33, A.) This Pine is of very 

 slow growth, and affords extremely hard and 

 durable timber, which is very much prized by 

 the miners on the west coast for making supports 

 for their galleries. The tree is, however, not 

 common, and the miners are obliged to use the 

 Myrtle for this purpose, which decays very rapidly 

 underground ; the Myrtle is used as far as pos- 

 sible in temporary galleries which are afterwards 

 filled in with rubbish, while the Celery Tops are 

 employed in the permanent woodwork of the 

 mills, and in permanent galleries. 



Another fine Conifer somewhat closely related 

 to the American Cypresses and the gigantic 

 Sequoia of California (Taxodineae) is the King 

 William Pine, the three closely allied species of 



