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more or less fibrous barks, varying from the Peppermints and Boxes to the Mahoganies 
and the true Stringybarks. All these barks resist the ravages of the fire more or less 
effectively. 
Then we have the flaky barks of the arboreal Geebungs (Persoonia) and the very 
flaky and non-conducting barks of the Paper-barks or Tea-trees (Melaleuca). It is 
true that these trees grow mostly in swampy and ill-drained land where fires (certainly 
not grass-fires) do not start ; but, on the other hand, Myrtaceous trees contain essential 
oil, and it is certainly of advantage to them to be protected, when fires do start, by a 
non-conducting case. 
The conditions of certain organs of forest trees facilitate the protection of the 
delicate seed which might otherwise be destroyed in a forest fire. Thus we have the 
hard fruit cases of the Native Pear (Xylomdum), of the Hakeas, Honeysuckles (Banksias), 
Eucalypts, She Oaks (Casuarina), the tough seed coats of Wattles (Acacia). 
As regards forest fires, they are of two kinds grass fires and others. The ordinary 
protective method for forests is to have strips of land bare of trees, and, indeed, of any 
other vegetation. In special circumstances the expense of ploughing the strips is gone 
to. Then back-firing is sometimes resorted to to save larger areas, but it should only 
be undertaken by experienced bushmen. 
Schlich, in Vol. iv, p. 539, discusses " Protection against Forest Fires " as carried 
on in Europe, and the section is a valuable one and well worthy of perusal, although 
there is a refinement of methods which is not applicable to our forests at present. 
Mr. Howitt* touches lightly on the Australian aspect. 
Gifford Pinchot writes "Notes on Some Forest Problems" (Forest Fircs),f 
which is valuable, but he pointed out that few data on the subject had been acquired 
in the United States. 
F. A. Silcox writes later J on " Fire Prevention and Control on the National 
Forests," and the paper is illustrated in an interesting manner. The various causes 
of fires are dealt with and the various means (telephones, trenching, &c.) for coping 
with them are explained. The paper is a useful one. 
When the fire gets into a forest, urged as it often is by a hot wind of considerable 
velocity, an area is often beyond human aid. Many of our trees have the bark in loose 
ribbons, and these ribbons become so many torches which, having been set 
alight, are carried hither and thither, sometimes for a great distance. They are 
deposited in the forks of other trees, often meeting a considerable amount of inflammable 
debris, and thus new foci of devastation are created. One often sees a fire start in a 
tree 50 or 60 feet above our heads, and how can we stop that? I remember on one 
occasion being overtaken by a bush fire, and taking refuge in a swamp with my wife 
and young children. There were certainly no ground fires there, and the trees were 
untouched, but eventually the trees were set alight from the tops, by means of the flaming 
torches which were blowing about everywhere in the upper strata, and we escaped with 
difficulty. 
" 'Influence of settlement on the Eucalyptus forests," A. W. Howitt in Tram. Ray. Hoc. Vicl. ii, 109. 
t " Year-book of Agric."' (U.S.A.) 1898, p. 18'J. } Ib. 1910, p. 413. 
