254 TIMBER AND TIMBER TREES. [chap. 



very valuable for indoor work, cabinet-making, ship- 

 building, &c. 



Eugenia myrtifolia, E. Jambolana and some other 

 species are useful woods, chiefly for small work. 



Exocarpics cupressiformis, the " Native Cherry," is 

 not a Cherry at all, but an ally of the Sandal-wood of 

 India, and is a close-grained and handsome wood, quite 

 common, and used for all kinds of turnery, &c. 



Fagus Cunninghami, known as the Myrtle, or Ever- 

 green Beech,* is a true Beech found in Tasmania and 

 Victoria, and is a hard, richly-coloured furniture and 

 carpenters' wood, much prized for all kinds of joinery. 



Ficus macrophylla, F. scabra and other Figs yield 

 timber of little value in Australia. 



Flindersia australis, sometimes called Ash,t is a hard, 

 close, and very durable timber, well known, but so 

 difificult to saw that it is neglected. Several other 

 species of Flindersia are used also. 



Fusanus spicatus is the Sandal -wood of Australia, 

 but not of India, though they belong to the same natural 

 family. It has been for some time a valuable export 



* Beech is another wood on the road to being spoilt by our Australian 

 colonists. Numerous trees go by this name in Australia — Cryptocarya 

 ^laucesceus, Flindersia australis, Gmelina Ltichardtii, Monotoca elliptica, 

 Trochocarpa laurina, Elcecarpus Kirtoni, and several others, none of which 

 have any real resemblance to the true Beeches. 



t The word ' ' Ash " is applied to various very different trees in different 

 parts of the world. The Cape Ash is Bkebergia capentis ; the Rhamnaceous 

 Alphiionea excelsa is called the Red Ash in Australia, and various other trees go 

 by the name of Ash in the colony. Our common Rowan (Pyrus aucuparia) is 

 often called the Mountain Ash, though it is no more a true'Ash than the very 

 different tree (BltBocarp-us longifolia) called by the same name in New South 

 Wales. The AustraUan Flindersia australis is also dubbed Ash in Queensland, 

 but as it also goes by the name of Beech, &c. , some idea can be obtained of the 

 flagrant looseness of application of these terras. Cupania semiglauca and 

 Litsaa dealbata are both called Black Ash in Australia, though the true Black 

 Ash is Fraxinus sambucifolia of North America. 



