For the following three photographs of a Flooded Gum (Eucalyptus rudis). Western 
Australia, I am indebted to Mr. W. C. Grasby, of the Western Mail. It inhabits the 
low-lying flats and banks of the rivers between the Swan and Blackwood, and is some- 
limes to be met with east of the Great Southern Railway. This tree is of great interest 
to settlers, first, because the timber is of no commercial value, and is poor firewood ; 
second, because it is exceedingly difficult to kill ; and third, because it is equally difficult 
to burn. Of all trees which have to be destroyed by the settler in clearing his land, 
the Flooded Gum is the hardest to destroy. After ringbarking it takes longer than any 
other to die, and is the most persistent in throwing up base shoots or suckers. Even 
when the suckers are kept regularly knocked off, the stump will remain green for years ; 
but the photographs reproduced serve to illustrate the reason why this tree is so hard 
to destroy. 
Photograph No. 1 represents an ancient Flooded Gum, about 4 feet or more in 
diameter, which has been thoroughly ringbarked about eight years, standing on the 
swampy edge of the brook at Ferndale, Balingup. It will be noticed that while the 
larger portion of the tree is dead, there is still a fair amount of green top, although the 
tree has been ringbarked about seven years. At the foot of the tree in the foreground 
will be seen a big limb, and just above the thick end of the limb a large scar showing 
the place from which the limb has fallen. The falling of this limb exposed the reason 
for the tree remaining partly alive. 
No. 2 is a photograph of the lower portion of the trunk of the same tree. In the 
foreground is the thick end of the big limb, and on the front of the tree is a large scar 
made by the breaking away of the dead limb. The mark of the ringbarking can be seen 
about a foot above the fallen limb. When this limb fell the cause of the tree remaining 
alive was explained. It will be noticed that from the green sapwood under the upper 
portion of the scar left by the fallen limb, a number of roots have grown, and one, fully 
3 inches in diameter, has found its way down the crack between the old limb and the 
main portion of the trunk, and lower down has entered through the rotten interior of 
the tree into the ground. There must have been a crack between this limb and the 
main tree at the time when the ringbarking was done, and in this crack, of course, the 
water would run, and there was a certain amount of rotted wood. During the wet 
season in that part of the State a mass of roots grew from the upper portion of the 
wound, and although only two, the big one and one other, are now alive, the remains 
of the smaller ones are to be seen in considerable number. As long as the big limb 
remained on the tree none of these roots could be seen. 
On the bank of the same brook, a few hundred yards from the big tree, is a smaller 
Flooded Gum, about 9 inches in diameter, and perhaps 18 or 20 feet high. Some years 
;i'.i<> this tree was well ringed about 6 inches from the ground, which remains wet through 
the whole of the summer, and in the winter time is covered with water for months. 
Indeed, the water probably covers the ringbarked area for several months in the winter. 
It will be noticed (Photograph No. 3) that this tree, instead of dying as the result of 
ringbarking, has put out a number of aerial roots above the ringing, and is now in a 
