EUCALYPTUS TREES. 91 



na Gum-tree (Eucalyptus viminalis) ; the Box Gum- 

 tree (Eucalyptus melliodora) produced nearly three 

 pounds of pure potash, or about five pounds of pearl- 

 ash from a ton of fresh leaves and branches ; while a 

 ton of the wood of the Red Gum-tree, in a dried state, 

 gave nearly two pounds weight of pure carbonate of 

 potassa, whereas the wood of the Blue Gum-tree 

 proved still richer. A ton of the dry wood of the 

 erect She-oak (Casuarina suberosa) furnished the large 

 quantity of six and one half pounds of pure potash. 

 This result is about equal to that obtainable from the 

 European Lime-tree or Linden-tree, which again is 

 one of the richest of all European trees in this respect. 



Such indications may suffice to draw more fully the 

 attention of forest settlers to an important but as j^et 

 latent branch of industry. For further details I refer 

 to elaborate tables of the yield of potash in native 

 trees, as the result from analyses made under my 

 direction by Mr. Chr. Hoffmann — these tabulated 

 statements being appended to my departmental re- 

 port, presented to Parliament in 1869. The whole- 

 sale price of the best pearlash is about £3 for the cwt. 

 in Melbourne. 



I wish it distinctly to be understood that I do not 

 advocate an indiscriminate sacrifice of our forest-trees 

 for any solitary one of its products, such as the pot- 

 ash ; because by any such procedure we would still 

 more accelerate the reduction of our woods. On the 

 contrary, good timber, fit for splitting or for the saw- 

 mill, ought to be far too precious for potash or tar 

 preparation. But branch-wood, bark, roots, crooked 

 stems, and even foliage, might well be utilized for 

 this industry, wherever the place is too remote to dis- 



