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Timber. It is a pinkish timber, often so deep in colour when newly cut that 
it has been described as " red," but the use of this adjective must not cause it to be 
confused with the recognised red Eucalyptus timbers. It is not of an ornamental 
character, and like that of most Gums, is inclined to shrink; the question of its 
durability is dealt with in the following paragraphs. 
This species was for long enough confused with E. viminalis, and hence its timber 
was considered to be of very little value as regards durability, and the statements that 
came through as to its usefulness puzzled many, and were set down to special conditions 
of growth, and so on. 
The following testimonies are from men whose opinions command respect, and 
the timber of E. rubida is undoubtedly valuable ; I would call it a useful second-class 
timber. The lesson is obvious that where the experience of a reliable bushman, long 
resident in a particular locality, runs counter to one's preconceived ideas, we should 
carefully note his testimony, and, if we cannot understand it, strive to do so. The 
durability of a timber is a most important character, and in the same species it may 
vary, so that it is conceivable that an inferior quality of a normally durable species A, 
may approach the superior quality of a normally non-durable species B, but, making 
allowance for all this, we arrive at a point at which we refuse to believe that a certain 
inferior timber can belong to a species whose timber is reputed to be durable, and vice 
versa. 
We have many of these unsolved problems in regard to the durability of timbers, 
the difficulty often arising from the circumstance that we may have not adequate 
botanical material matched to the timber. These records of durability, so important 
in a new country which uses such large quantities of timbers for such trying situations 
as fence-posts, house-posts, &c., often depend upon the personal recollection of a citizen, 
and memory may be fallible. In regard to certain other properties of a timber, such as 
tensile strength, a machine elicits the evidence, not dependent on an historical record, 
which may break down. Further, a timber subjected to a durability test may possess 
external characters resembling those of another species, while if the durability test be 
very prolonged, the origin of the timber may have long passed out of mind. 
The matter of the optimum of a timber comes into consideration also. 
Testimony 1. ' Knowing E. rubida to be closely allied to E. viminalis, and 
remembering the inferior character always assigned to the latter, I was surprised on 
Saturday to find from a splitter residing in rubida country for over fifty years that 
posts of this tree have lasted forty years in the ground. On close inquiry I found him 
well aware of the difference in sucker leaves of rubida and viminalis and leucoxylon, and 
I saw the posts myself. It is, however, too free splitting for sleepers, as the bolts can't 
put good enough hold." (Walter Gill, Conservator of Forests of South Australia, 31st 
March, 1903, in a letter to me.) 
Testimony 2.- ' The parent tree of the twigs I sent you is a Gum growing in 
large quantities on the Bago Forest Reserve, Tumbarumba, and I consider it a species 
of the Ribbon Gum ; it is known as such by some bushmen and regarded as a useless 
