77 
In his “ Creek of the Four Graves ” he still has this simile of hair in view, 
hut daintily refers to the “ sylvan eyelash ” in alluding to what most of us know as 
the “River Oak” (C. Cunninghamiana) :— 
“ From either bank, or duskily befringed 
With upward tapering feathery swamp oaks, 
The sylvan eyelash always of remote 
Australian waters, whether gleaming still 
In lake or pool, or bickering along 
Between the marges of some eager stream.” 
To Lawson the She Oaks of the Mudgee district sigh, while the hrancblets 
are grassy:— 
“ Now still down Reedy River 
The grassy she oaks sigh.”—(Reedy River.) 
and— 
“ Till I sighed in my heart to the sigh of the Oaks.”—(Eurunderee.) 
The Belar is the Oak of which I am specially treating in this Part, and 
Ogilvie in his “ The Graves out West,” prettily alludes to— 
“ God’s choristers invisible—the winds in the Belars.” 
So that our oaks form seolian harps. And the soughing or sighing of the 
wind through them suggests sadness, weirdness, and the moans and shrieks of elves. 
Timber. —Casuarina timbers vary so much in depth of tint, in the extent 
and distribution of the blotchy grain (medullary rays) to which the wood owes so 
much of its beauty, that it is difficult to describe it by any brief general description. 
Some of the deep-red kinds imported into England at one time very largely, Mr. 
Holtzapffel, the well-known authority on turnery, describes as— 
In general colour resembling a full red mahogany, with darker red veins; the grain is moi'e like the 
Ever-green Oak ( Quercus Hex, a Mediterranean species), than the other European varieties, as the veins 
are small, slightly curled, and closely distributed throughout the whole surface. Some specimens are very 
pretty. 
Most of our She Oaks are very fissile, and show a handsome blotchy oak-like 
grain, often different, however, in colour. The timber is hard and heavy, and that 
of some kinds very tough. 
The principal use of She Oak timber is for fuel, for which purpose it is 
excellent. It is also used for shingles, and at one time largely for staves, though far 
* less at the present time. It is excellent for ornamental turnery work generally, and 
for cabinet work, for which it is generally used in veneers. Then we have such 
uses as veneer for the backs of brushes, and for what is known as Tunbridge ware. 
For all the above uses (except shingles and staves), I am of opinion that there 
might be created for various She Oak timbers a very large demand in Great Britain 
and the continent of Europe. Some of them, c.g., River Oak and Swamp Oak, are 
much prized for bullock-yokes, as their timber is comparatively light and tough, and 
the bolts do not work loose. The She Oak timber makes excellent mauls, tool- 
handles, and very ornamental walking-sticks, good screws of hand-screws; in fact, 
one species or another may be put to very many useful purposes. 
