30 
100. Eucalyptus polyanthema, Schauer. 
RED and GREY BOX -TREE and POPLAR- 
LEAVED GUM-TREE. (Sect. Rhytipkloice .) 
Near the Pyrenees, Upper Yarra, on the Ovens, Broken River, 
and some other spots on open ridges. A tree sometimes small, 
sometimes attaining 40 to 50 feet, exceptionally rising much 
higher. (Falk.) with an ash-grey, persistent, rough and fur- 
rowed bark. Timber used by wheelwrights for naves, felloes, and 
spokes. It is of a brown colour towards the centre, very hard, 
tough, and extremely strong. One of our best woods for fuel. 
101. Eucalyptus rostrata, Schlechtendal. 
THE RED GUM-TREE. One of the so-called 
Flooded-gums of N.S.W. (Sect. Leiophloice.) 
Along river-flats and open valleys almost everywhere. (F. v. 
Mueller.) A tall spreading tree, bark greyish-white, smooth 
and separating in thin layers, rarely persistent, aud rough. A 
very hard, compact wood, possessing a handsome, curled, but 
rather short grain ; it is of a brown-red colour, and suitable for 
veneering purposes, for furniture, &c. It is largely used for 
fence posts. It is less subject to decay than most of the other 
timbers. When properly selected and seasoned, it is well 
adapted for many purposes in ship-building — such as heavy 
framing beams and knees. It is also used in the construction 
of culverts, bridges, wharves, and by win elwrights for the felloes 
of heavy wheels, and is much approved of for railway-sleepers and 
engine- buffers. It is almost entirely free from the tendency to 
longitudinal shrinkage, which is so characteristic of many other 
species of the Eucalypts, and is almost indestiuctible in damp 
ground or in water, either fresh or salt. Its defects are its 
short grain, which makes it untrustworthy for hoiizontal beating 
timber in any but very short lengths; and it cannot easily be 
procured in long lengths and of a moderately small diameter — a 
point of some importance in piles, where it is desirable to have 
the whole section of the tree with its waning intact. Still, 
within a reasonable limit of length, it makes the best of all piles 
for engineering works, in consequence of the resistance it offers 
to the attacks of the Teredo navalis , and it cannot be surpassed 
for any purposes, either in engineering or building, where a 
resistance to sheer downward pressure is desired. It makes un- 
equalled planking for bridges or wharves, and none but red-gum 
sleepers are considered first-clas 3 . ( Jurors ’ Report , 1866.) 
Specific gravity of this wood has been stated at 0 f 858 and 0'92o. 
