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man’s knife was made of hoop-iron, and no one seemed able to imitate him in 
making such excellent basket material.* The species has also been sent as “ Bastard 
Myall ” from Port Stephens and Glen Innes, and as Hickory from the southern 
parts of this State. It probably bears other local names. North of the Clyde 
Biver people are ignorant of the identity of the tree with the Blackwood of 
Tasmania and Victoria, and hence do not employ that term to designate it. 
Aboriginal Names. —“ Mootchong ” of the Ja-jow-er-ong tribe, Victoria, 
and “ Mooeyang ” or “Moeyang” of the Yarra blacks. “ Mudgerabah” is an old 
aboriginal name in northern New South Wales, and is the name by which the tree 
is generally known, at the present day, in New England. 
Synonyms. —Wendl. Comm. Acac. 21, t. 6; DC. Prod, ii, 152; Bot. Mag., 
t. 1659 ; Lodd. Bot. Cab., t. 630; Hook, f., El. Tasm., i, 109; E. Muell. Pl. Viet., 
ii, 2S; A. arcuata, Sieb. PI. Exs. and in Spreng. Syst., iii, 135 (by mistake attributed 
to Labillardiere). A. brevipes, A. Cunn. in Bot. Mag., t. 3358, from a single 
specimen preserved of the cultivated plant described, appears to be a variety of 
A. melanoxylon with longer more falcate phyllodia, attaining 5 to 7 inches (B.E1. 
ii, 389). 
Bark. —The bark has usually gone to waste after the wood has been obtained 
from the logs. Baron von Mueller says :—“ The bark is, however, rich in tannic 
acid, and ought not to be left unutilised, though no trees of this species should be 
sacrificed for their bark alone.” This may be true as regards Victorian trees ; but 
I have not seen any New South Wales Blackwood barks of much value. One from 
an oldish tree from Monga, near Braidwood, yielded 11T2 per cent, of tannic acid, 
and 2(163 per cent, of extract. This is the only specimen I have subjected to chemical 
analysis ; hut I have roughly tested other barks of the same species, and am inclined 
to think that Blackwood bark is very inferior for the purposes of the tanner. The 
bark contains some saponin. 
Timber. —This is considered by some people to be the most valuable of 
Australian timbers. Perhaps this is a bold claim to make, bearing in mind the high 
merits of such timbers as Ironbark and K ed Cedar; but it is undoubtedly a timber 
of the highest class, happily combining an ornamental character with great strength. 
It is hard and close-grained, and is much valued for furniture, billiard-tables, 
cabinet-work, picture-frames, gun-stocks, walking-sticks, crutches, tool-handles, 
railway and other carriages, boat-building (stem and stern-posts, ribs, rudder), naves 
of wheels, parts of organs, pianofortes (sound-boards and actions), and many other 
purposes too numerous to individualise. It is a most useful timber for coach- 
builders, in the bent timber branch. It bends well, and with proper treatment from 
the felling and sawing of the lumber, it substitutes perfectly for the bent timber in, 
say, an Austrian chair, and would look as well, and feel as light. For narrow 
boards it is used in the coach-building trade in Sydney in place of American 
* The fishing lines of the Kurnai (Gippsland) blacks were made of the inner bark of this tree.—A. W. Howitt, “Native 
Tribes of S.E. Australia,” p. 761. 
