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arresting washaways is obvious. One can see evidence that the banks of the Upper Hunter streams were 
much more lined with trees than at present. In many parts of the Hunter and its tributaries one sees 
large River Oaks (many of them past their prime) leaving no descendants to continue their work of bank 
preservation. The young seedlings are palatable to stock, and hence they are eaten out if they have free 
access to them. This points to the necessary precaution that stock should not have unfettered access to 
the bed of a stream, as if it were a public highway. The seedling oaks should be carefully conserved until 
they are out of reach of stock. Great numbers of River Oaks have been cut down this year for fodder alone. 
One lays special stress on the value of the River Oak for purposes of bank protection, for the reason 
that it has been for ages the natural bank protector of these streams, and has become largely adapted to 
its environment. At the same time the acquisition of these lands by the white man, and his method of 
dealing with the banks and adjacent country, constitutes a marked change in the conditions, and it may 
be that other trees are even better than the River Oak for purposes of bank conservation. River Oaks have 
not a large tap-root; they have rather flat, spreading roots, which penetrate the rich soil and silt on the 
bed of gravel already alluded to. When this gravel becomes bared, as it does in so many places, the River 
oak heels over and falls into the stream just as a boulder does. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 59. 
N.B.—What has been figured is the most widely-diffused form of the species. A note on the type 
form is given at p. 118. 
a. Branch bearing pistilliferous flowers. 
b. Pistilliferous flower, enlarged. 
c. Branch bearing fruits (cones). 
i>. Young cone. 
E. Ripe cones. 
f. Winged nut, containing seed. 
g. Branch bearing staminiferous flowers. 
h. Staminiferous flowers. 
k. Part of the same, opened out. 
L. A single staminiferous flower, consisting of a single stamen between two floral bracts. 
M. Part of branch showing portions of two joints. 
N. Whorled bracts, representing leaves, opened out. 
There are two photographs of River Oaks, one by Mr. R. PI. Cambage, showing them fringing the 
Wollondilly River at Burragorang, with Triassic and Permo-carboniferous cliffs (Blue Mountains) in back¬ 
ground. The other, by Kerry & Co., Sydney, was taken on the Guy Fawkes River, New England, N.S. W. 
