142 



SUPPLEMENTARY KOTES. 



Rate of Growth. 



Growth and Age of Trees. 

 Natural Afforestation. 

 Flowering in Dwarf State. 

 Liquids in Tree Trunks. 

 Pendulous Branches. 

 Manna. 

 Kino. 



Size and Habit. 

 Barks. 

 Timbers (Colours). 



„. (Inflammability). 



,, (in general). 

 Leaves (and Oils). 

 Inflorescence. 

 Fruits. 



Adjustment of Botanical Descriptions. 

 Additional Biographical Notes. 



Rate of Growth. 



(See Part XLVIII, pp. 244-8.) 



Growth and Age of Trees (p. 245). — " I also think there has been much misconception of the facts in 

 the past. I do not think that any of our Eucalypts attain the age that, owing to their great size, many 

 people have assigned to them. I think that an increase of 1 inch in diameter per year is a moderate estimate 

 for the growth of many of these trees, in the conditions and environment in which they grew, and that 

 from a half to 1 inch per annum is not an uncommon growth for many of our forest trees under average 

 favourable conditions. 



In Bairnsdale township there is a very fine specimen of E. tereticornis, a tall straight tree, with a 

 bole about 5 feet in diameter at 3 feet from the ground, and about 45 feet to the first branch. It stands 

 in an open place all alone. I have known the tree for thirty-eight years, and believe it has increased in 

 diameter more than 24 inches during that time. It shows little sign of decay, but I believe its rate of growth 

 has been less of later years. I look upon its age as 80-100 years. Near Orbost, growing on the rich river 

 flat lands of the Snowy River, there is a splendid specimen of E. botryoides. When I saw it first, about 

 thirty years ago, it was about 2 ft. 6 in. in diameter. Now it is fully 5 feet, and about 50 feet in height 

 to the first branch. Again, and this is more definite, some years ago I saw in Stratford, growing in a White- 

 horn hedge around a garden, two fine healthy vigorous Eed Gum trees, E. tereticornis. I asked the owner 

 of the garden how they came there. He said they came up as seedlings after he planted the hedge, and 

 he let them grow. He had planted the hedge forty years before. I often noticed these trees, but about 

 five years later, owing to the wide-spreading branches spreading too far over the street, the trees had to be 

 removed. They were cut off level with the top of the hedge, at 5 feet from the ground, and at that height 

 one of them was 30 inches in diameter, and the other about 26 inches. That was the growth of these trees 

 in forty-five years. The stems or boles were not very high, probably not more than 10 feet, to where they 

 spread into three or four limbs, with a thick spreading top of dense foliage. 



