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prefer some timbers to others, and will leave some timbers quite intact while eating 
those that are more palatable. 
During the month of February, 1865, I laid a floor of this sort of timber in Booral. The situation 
was on a very low damp condition, and though the floor had been in contact with the hardwood slabs of 
the wall, and these so thoroughly worried with the white ants as hardly to be able to stand on end, and 
have had to be taken away, the floor boards have been but 3 inches above the ground, and now, not¬ 
withstanding .all these drawbacks, the boards when taken up are found to be as sound as ever; they were 
relaid again, and look as if they would last another twenty years. Now what insect can contend with the 
essential oil of this timber? Not one, I believe. 
A Wollongong correspondent writes :— 
To-day whilst clearing out the storeroom a small case was shifted (it was resting on the damp floor); 
in doing so the bottom fell out. The white ants had eaten it out. T find the box to be made of a deal 
sides, the ends of English elm or ash, and the partitions of Colonial sassafras. 
The late Forester Benson wrote from Wyndham:— 
The timber is very useful for indoor work. I was shown a large house on the creek, where all the rooms 
were lined with it, and it seems equally as well adapted for that purpose as pine. The window frames and 
some of the furniture are of mountain hickory, which appears to be a valuable timber for cabinet-making. 
I was informed that sassafras should be cut in the winter and stacked for some months, as it is liable to 
warp ; also that it is free from the attacks from white ants. 
Size. —It forms a large tree. Trees GO to 80 feet high are quite common, 
and I have been given measurements from reliable people up to 120 feet high, and 
with a diameter up to 5 feet. 
Habitat. —The Sassafras is confined to New South Wales and Queensland. 
The most southerly locality I have specimens from in this State is Myrtle Creek, 
Wyndham, County of Auckland. This is, of course, very close to the Victorian 
border, in which State it may be expected to be found. In Queensland it is as far 
north as the Logan Liver. It is found in brushes, lienee in good soil in gullies 
throughout the coastal districts. It occurs for a considerable distance into the 
recesses of the mountain ranges of the Dividing Langes and its spurs, but its precise 
range or “curving boundary ” is unknown. 1 have it from as far west as Jenolan 
Caves, Mt. Wilson, and the Bowman and Barrington Livers. I shall he glad of 
notes of any localities further west than those stated. 
Propn gat ion .—From seed. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE. 
a. Flower. 
b. Vertical section of flower. 
c. Flower without perianth. 
D. Stamen. 
E. Staminodium. 
f. Carpel. 
G. Fruiting carpels included in persistmt perianth tube. 
ii. Plumose, awn, and style. 
/ 
