244 TIMBER AND TIMBER TREES. [chap. 



growth, and attains a height of 200 to 300 feetj with a 

 diameter of from 6 to 25 feet. Like the Jarrah, it is 

 characteristic of the larger trees, that, while they appear 

 to be healthy and vigorous, and continue to increase in 

 height and bulk, the centre wastes away near the root, 

 and, when felled, they are often found hollow for some 

 considerable distance up from the butt. The dimensions 

 of the serviceable logs which the tree yields will, there- 

 fore, depend very much upon its soundness; but, un- 

 questionably, very large scantlings can be procured from 

 it if required. 



The wood is of a pale straw colour, hard, heavy, 

 moderately strong, tough, and with the grain twisted or 

 curled. In seasoning deep shakes occur from the sur- 

 face, and it shrinks and warps considerably. 



I remember to have seen in one of the royal dock- 

 yards some extremely long and broad planks, or thick- 

 stuff, of this description of timber, which had been 

 apparently flitched from some of the hollow trees before 

 referred to. These, after being kept to season for a 

 while, warped and split to such an excessive degree that 

 it was impossible to use them for any planking purpose 

 whatever. In consequence of this defect it was found 

 necessary to reduce the planks to very short lengths, in 

 order to utilise them at all, and so they passed to quite 

 inferior services. 



in the Department of the Var was so pestilential that the officials could not be 

 kept there longer than a year. Forty of these trees were planted, and it is now 

 as healthy as any other place on the line. We have no information as to 

 whether this beneficent tree will grow in other but hot climates. We hope 

 that experiments will be made to determine this point. It would be a good 

 thing to introduce it on the West Coast of Africa." 



Similar accounts are published from other parts of the world, but, without 

 denying the substratum of truth in the statements, it seems clear that many of 

 them are exaggerated. 



