78 
This timber was called into requisition early in the history of Australian 
colonisation, and was beginning to get scarce immediately round the settlement in 
Sydney Cove only four months after the landing. Governor Phillip (quoted by 
G. B. Barton) at that date says : — 
The timber which in its growth resembles the fir-tree warps less (than gum timber), but we are 
already obliged to fetch it from some distance, and it will not float. 
Two months later Phillip wrote :— 
The barracks and all buildings in future will be covered with shingles, which we now make from a 
tree like the pine-tree in appearance, the wood resembling the English Oak.—(Barton’s History of N.S. W., 
i, 301.) 
This is the earliest record of “ She Oak ” for shingles, a use to which it is 
extensively put up to the present day. 
An officer of marines writing to Sir Joseph Banks a few months after the 
foundation of New South Wales, did not hesitate thus to dogmatise on its timber 
trees :— 
The only tree fit for building or any other use is the fir-tree, and even that is bad.—(See Barton's 
History of N.S.W. i, 504.) 
Bv “fir-tree,” Casuarina was intended. Under the name of Beefwood it 
was exported to England at least as early as 1806.— {Hist. Records of N.S.W., 
vi, 101.) 
Mueller, speaking of the anatomical structure of the timber, says that it 
contains many spiral vessels, and that the cells are filled with starch 
We now proceed to consider the species lepidophloia in detail. 
Botanical description. — Species, lepidophloia, E.v.M., in Fragm. x, 116. 
Arborescent. 
Internodes of the Branchlets .—Finely striate, terminating in 9 or 10 very short teeth. 
Fruit-cones .—Rather short, brownish silky-tomentose, the bracts obtuse, shortly acuminate ; the 
fruit-bearing braeteoles conspicuously protruding, minutely 7 apiculate, without appendages. 
Seeds. —Pale. 
In deserts between the Bogan, Darling, and Lachlan Rivers, together with C. glanca (L Morton). 
Near the Murray River, in low sandy places. 
Small or middle-sized tree. 
Hrnnchlets .—Nearly always thinner than a line. 
Teeth-like foliage .—(Sheath teeth) at first deltoid-lanceolate, delicately ciliate. 
Male mid Female flowers .—Not seen. 
Cones .—Shorter than an inch, depressed globular, the valve-like bracteoles somewhat turgid, slightly 
carinate towards the apex. 
S°eds .—Not seen quite ripe. 
