141 
No. 68. 
Casuarina strict a. Ait. 
The Drooping She-Oak. 
(Natural Order CASUARINACEvE.) 
Botanical description. —Genus, Casuarina. (See p. 74, Part XIII.) 
Botanical description. —Species, C. stricta, Ait., Hort. Kew iii, 320 (1789), not of 
Mi quel. 
A small tree with the branchlets usually, if not always, pendulous, notwithstanding the name, 
sometimes reduced to a tall dense shrub; the whorls of 9 to 12 parts, the internodes often \ inch long or 
more ; the ribs rather prominent; the sheath-teeth acute or shortly acuminate. 
Flowers. —Dioecious. 
Male spikes.—Some of them terminating deciduous branchlets of several inches, others almost 
sessile on the permanent branch, often more than 2 inches long, dense when young, the 
sheaths scarcely overlapping when full-grown. 
Fruit-cones. —Globular or ovoid, often 1 inch diameter or even more, the valves much protruded, 
ovate-triangular or almost ovate-oblong, thickened into a smooth dorsal prominent angle or 
keel. (B.F1. vi, 195.) 
Botanical Name.— Casuarina , already explained, p. 79, Part XIII; stricta, 
Latin, drawn out, i.e., into a narrow bundle; hence, speaking of the branches of a 
plant, rigid or erect. Aiton, in his original description of this species, speaks of it as 
the “ Upright Casuarina.” As Bentham has already pointed out, its branches are 
only exceptionally rigid. But the “ Mountain Oak ” of the Dubbo district, for 
example, is very erect in habit, and a similar habit has been noted from other 
localities. The female trees are more strict (erect) than the males, and often quite 
the reverse of drooping. 
Vernacular Names. —The commonest name of this tree is simply “ She-Oak.” 
It is often called “ Mountain Oak ” in the western districts, for obvious reasons. It 
is not easy to submit a suitable vernacular name, especially as few people give it 
any particular designation, and it bears the somewhat unfortunate botanical name, 
“ stricta.” I submit the name “ Drooping She-Oak,” which is not a new one, and 
which is fairly descriptive, for general acceptance. I have known it called “ Black 
Oak” at Deniliquin, “Bull Oak” at Wybong, and “Sour Oak” (because of the 
taste of the branchlets) at Denman close by. 
Aboriginal Names. —“ Borenne ” is the aboriginal name on the Lachlan, 
according to the late Mr. Forester T. Kidston, who communicated it to me. 
“ Boreen ” is another spelling 1 have seen. 
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