31 
sometimes attaining 40 to 50 feet, exceptionally rising much 
higher. (Falk.) Has an ash grey, persistent, rough and furrowed 
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. 
xoi. Eucalyptus rostrata, Sckkchtendal. 
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, and 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, etc. 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 pur- 
poses in ship-building — such as heavy framing beams and knees. 
It is also used in the construction of culverts, bridges, wharves, 
and by wheelwrights 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 indestructible in damp ground or in water, either fresh or 
salt. Its defects are its short grain, which makes it untrustworthy 
for horizontal bearing 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 sur- 
passed for any purposes, either in engineering or building, where 
a resistance to sheer downward pressure is desired. It makes 
unequalled planking for bridges or wharves, and none but red- 
gum sleepers are considered first-class. (Jurors' Report , 1S66.) 
Specific gravity of this wood has been stated at 0*858 and 0*923. 
Samples of essential oil, wood spirit, acetic acid, tar and charcoal, 
obtained from this tree, are in the Museum. Paper prepared from 
the bark of this species proves much coarser than that of Eucalyptus * 
obliqua ; the pulp may be either used in admixture with that for 
packing paper and pasteboard, or in the composition. (F. v. 
Mueller, in Jurors' Report .) The kino from E. rostrata is 
preferred to that from other species as a therapeutic astringent. 
