Exudation. —The lied Cedar produces gum, hut only very rarely, and in 
small quantity. An old cedar-getter says that trees well exposed to the sun [(?) in 
unsuitable situations] yield most gum. The specimens I have examined are pale 
yellow, almost colourless, and in thin tears about an inch long. Between the teeth it 
almost feels leathery. It swells up largely in cold water, but in the course of 
twenty-four hours it nearly wholly dissolves, forming a solution colourless and 
faintly cloudy, and leaving but little residue. It is one of the gums which form a 
connecting link between those which readily dissolve in water and those which 
merely swell up in that liquid. It forms a fair mucilage, and it would be a 
valuable commodity if obtainable in large quantities.* 
Lauterer gives another analysis of this gum. The note on Toon Gum in 
JPhannacographia Indica , i. 339, 517, will be found of interest. It is worthy of 
note that a sticky aromatic resin exudes from cedar, c.g., when a box or drawer is 
kept shut up, but only in small quantities. 
Size. —A middle-sized to a very large tree, varying in height up to 200 feet, 
and with a trunk diameter up to 10 feet, though exceptional trees have exceeded 
these large dimensions. The size of the average trees now yielding cedar is about 
half the above. 
“ A tree cut down near Lismore, which measured 10 feet in diameter at 
the base, was calculated to yield 30,000 feet of saleable timber.” (Moore.) In 
May, 1898, the steamer “ Wodonga ” brought from Barron Balls, Cairns, Queensland, 
a log weighing 8 tons. 
Mr. A. II. Crawford, of Moona Plains, Walcha, gave me particulars of an 
even larger tree. He writes :— 
This half flitch of cedar was cut from a tree which grew on Mr. H. Sauer’s selection in Mulla 
Mulla Creek, 45 miles from Ivempsey, and was cut from the trunk 5G feet from the stump. This tree was 
measured, after being felled, by Messrs. O. 0. Dangar and W. Nance, and found to contain 80,000 feet of 
sound cedar ; the first limb grew 60 feet from the ground. The timber in this tree would be worth £800 
in the flitch on the Kcmpsey Wharf. This flitch weighed G tons, and was drawn to Green Hills by 
Mr. Henry Davis, and exhibited by Mr. Robert Campbell, of Warneton. 
Heinrich Sauer told me two years later that the top of the stump was about 10 feet from the 
ground, and that plenty of good cedar was cut from the branches, which were the size of fair-sized trees. 
It is said that the selection was chiefly taken up for the sake of this tree. 
Habitat. —The best cedar is found from the Bellinger Itivcr, northwards to 
the Richmond River, and throughout Queensland, especially in the warmest and 
moistest districts. It is, however, found from the lllawarra northwards, in the 
Shoalhaven gullies, Bulli Mountain, Kowmung, and thence northwards in increasing 
abundance until the northern rivers are reached. In localities to the south of 
Sydney the cedar is practically cut out, the only remaining trees being in almost 
inaccessible situations. 
Ulladulla, on the coast, 161 miles from Sydney, is the southern limit 
for cedar. 
• For analysis and further particulars of Red Cedar and Toon Gains, vt Maiden, J. H., “On Cedar Gum.”— 
Pror, Linn. Soc., N.K.W., xiv., 1047 (1889). 
