31 
Timber.—Wood close grained, light in colour, and very hard. Useful for 
turnery, and possibly for wood-engraving. “ Specific gravity, 767.” ( Report , 
Victorian Exhibition , 1861.) 
The tree being so small, its timber can never be of commercial importance. 
Exudation. —The genus Fittospornm is one which yields both gums and 
resins. See Maiden.* The present tree is referred to in the following paragraph :— 
“ Several Acacise useful .... for their gum, but the latter is even excelled in clearness and 
solubility by that obtained from Pittosporum acacioides.” (Mueller, First General Report, 1853, page 6.) 
I have not received many specimens of the gum; it is of scientific rather 
than of general interest. 
Size. —It rarely exceeds 25 to 30 feet in height, and is as a rule much 
smaller. Ten inches in diameter is the maximum authenticated measurement of 
the trunk known to me. 
Habitat.—It occurs in every State of Australia. It is a native of country 
with a small rainfall, and hence flourishes in the arid interior. In our own State it 
is not found near the coast, though in some other States this does not hold, as it 
occurs in places which have a sparse rainfall, although near the seaboard. In New 
South Wales it has been found by Mr. 11. H. Cambage in the Tamworth district, 
the most easterly locality known to me. It should be looked for in the Page Elver 
country (near Scone), where a number of stragglers of the 'Western vegetation have 
already been found. 
Propagation. —The seeds germinate readily. It grows well in the Sydney 
district in spite of the heavy rainfall. The ground must be well drained for it to 
flourish. 
An Aboriginal Legend. —Some years since, a valued North Queensland 
correspondent, Mr. J. 11. Chisholm, gave me the following legend in regard to our 
tree. These are his words :— 
Years ago I was walking along Prairie Creek with a black boy companion. It was just about the 
time we took up the country. Passing a little patch of scrub I noticed these berries. I asked the black if 
they were edible, or, as I put it, “black fellow tuckout that one” 1 
“ Baal, baal,” he replied, and he added shortly afterwards “that one mother belonging to gin.” 
I asked how, and he gave me the legend, taking care to impress upon me that it was a long time 
ago. No one lived in the country at that time, but this bush grew along the creok, as it does now. One 
day one of the berries opened, and out of it came a beautiful young gin. Very beautiful indeed, and 
stately, and she lived on the creek by the waterholes alone, hunting sugar-bags and trapping duck, and 
getting fat grubs from the trees. So she lived quietly through many months, or even years, all the time 
pining for some mate, until one day she was strolling along past another patch of scrub, when lo and 
behold she noticed a bush with seed-pods upon it, and while she watched a seed-pod opened and out of it 
came a young blackfellow. 
Maiden, J. H., “Notes on the exudations yielded by Australian species of Pittosporum. 
Proc. Aust. Assoc. Adv, Sci., iv, 289. 
