451 
Gilgandra. 
During the last severe drought the leaves of Silver-leaved Ironbark 
(E. melanophloia) were extensively used in the Wee Waa district as feed for cattle. In 
a lesser degree those also of River Gum (E. rostrata) and Coolabah (E. microtheca) were 
also utilised as fodder lor sheep and cattle. In the majority of cases all the leaves 
within reach of the stock (or nearly all) were eaten, but in the case of Coolabah it was 
noticed that the stock would not eat the leaves of some trees, whilst those of others 
were eagerly devoured. 
GEO. A. WITHERS, Forest Guard. 
I will now give a few notes on Eucalypts (arranged in alphabetical order), 
which are more or less eaten by cattle and sheep. 
E. aggregata Deane and Maiden (Black Gum). Young trees are often eaten 
down by cattle. 
E. bicolor A. Cunn. (Black or Flooded Box), was used for feeding sheep through 
the 1902 drought, Deniliquin district (Forester Wilshire). 
E. coriacea A. Cunn. (a White Gum), is known sometimes as Cattle Gum because 
cattle feed on the leaves when grass is scarce (see Part V, pp. 133, 134, and 140, of 
" A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus "). An analysis of the leaves, by 
Mr. F. B. Guthrie, will be found at Part II, p. 115, of the present work. 
E. dadocalyx F.v.M. (E. ccrynocalyx F.v.M.), the Sugar Gum of South Australia, 
has been known as an occasional stock feed for very many years. Owing to the 
sweetness of the leaves it owes its vernacular name. 
E. Gunnii Hook. f. (the Cider-tree of Tasmania). A tree whose leaves are 
somewhat succulent and sweetish, and eaten by stock. 
E. hemiphloia var. albens F.v.M. (a " White Box"). Mr. George Pring, 
Cooyong, Crowther, with twenty-five years' experience in the district at the time, told 
me that sheep will " eat up every leaf " of the " Blue White Box " (this is E. hemiphloia 
var. albens), which grows on hilly, gravelly country, while the " Green White Box " 
(this is E. hemiphloia var. microcarpa), which is found on flat country, they do not 
care for. 
E. ovata Labill. ' I have seen well-fed cows in a good grass paddock (in the 
Colac district of Victoria) rush up to and greedily devour the leaves and twigs of 
a large branch of E. ovata Labill. that had suddenly crashed to the ground." 
(A. D. Hardy, Viet. Nat., XXXV, 28.) 
