STRINGYBARK TREES AND THEIR ESSENTIAL OILS. 107 



The timber is the most durable and more highly prized than 

 that of the two other " Stringybarks " of this paper. It is a most 

 fissile wood and we have seen split posts and rails with a surface 

 almost as smooth as if it had been planed. It is a tree that should 

 be conserved, as besides its other qualities it would probably 

 make an excellent wood blocking timber. The timber is very 

 durable in the ground, and is in great request for posts in the 

 Rylstone district. 



Mr. H. J. Rumsey, writing from Barber's Creek, states : — " A 

 few months ago I purchased an old three rail fence on Crown 

 lands which was erected by a lessee twenty-five years ago, and 

 have pulled it down and re-erected it on my own property. The 

 rails which were all White Stringybark, E. eugenioides, are appar- 

 ently as good and sound as the day they were erected, except for 

 the ravages of fire in some places. The posts were White Stringy- 

 bark. Grey Gum, E. punctata, and Snappy Gum, E. niicraniha. 

 The Stringybark have weathered below ground to the thickness 

 of the sap about three quarters of an inch, on average quite sound 

 above ground. The Grey Gum have mostly rotted below ground 

 but are fairly sound above, while the Snappy Gum seem least 

 affected of all. To all appearances the fence of White Stringy- 

 bark supposed to be sixty years old still has many of the posts 

 standing, but as they were split very thin originally they are not 

 much good now." 



Histological Notes. 



The leaves of all three species, E. macrorhynclia, F.v.M., E. 

 capitellata, Sm., E. eugenioides, Sieb., vary little in shape and 

 outward appearance, and the histology of one is almost applicable to 

 all three. The oil-glands are unequally distributed in number in 

 each species, being most numerous in E. eugenioides and least 

 numerous in E. capitellata. The stomata are also very numerous 

 in each. The cells of the cuticle are very irregular in shape, the 

 walls of which when seen in a surface view lack that regular 

 polygonal structure as shown to exist in E. punctata in our previous 

 paper. 1 The leaves are somewhat coriaceous, but least so in E. 



l Eoy. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1897. 



