143 
I have seen Gunn’s 1247, and I cannot see the grounds for the establishment 
of this plant even as a variety. 
Casuarina Gunnii, J. D. Hook. MSS. Cas. quadrivalvis, var. spectabilis. 
Miq. l.c., p. 73, Tab. x, fig. C. Van Diemensland (C. Stuart). (Miq. in Ned. Kruidk. 
Arch, iv, 98 (1856).) 
Bentham remarks :— 
The C. Gunnii, formerly published by Miquel and reduced by Hooker to a var. spectabilis of 
C. quadrivalvis, differs in nothing but a more robust habit. (B.F1. vi, 195.) 
Leaves (Branclllets). —In cases of severe thirst, relief may be obtained 
from chewing the foliage of this and other species, which, being of an acid nature, 
produces a flow of saliva—a fact well-known to bushmen who have traversed 
waterless portions of the country. This acid is closely allied to citric acid, and may 
prove identical with it. The branchlets of this species appear to be more sour than 
those of any other. Children chew the young cones, which they call “ oak apples.” 
This is a useful fodder tree in South Australia, Victoria, and southern New 
South Wales. Mr. S. Dixon states that in Port Lincoln (S.A.) the fallen catkins 
(male inflorescence) form the chief sustenance in winter on much of the overstocked 
country. He adds that this tree is too sour to be very useful to ewes rearing lambs ; 
but if sheep had only enough of it, the “ break ” or tenderness of fibre would often 
be prevented in our fine-wool districts, and much money saved by the increased 
value a sound staple always commands. 
The foliage is eagerly browsed upon by stock, and in cases of drought these 
trees are pollarded for the cattle. Old bullock-drivers say that cattle prefer the 
foliage of the female plant.—(J. E. Brown.) Casuarina foliage has a pleasant 
acidulous taste, but it contains a very large proportion of ligneous matter. 
Used for stock feeding in dry time and considered fair feed.—(Dist. Forester Marriott.) 
When these trees are lopped for stock feed, the following year they send out a profusion of young 
foliage, and are very pretty in appearance.—(Forest Ranger Taylor, Wagga Wagga.) 
Fruits. —Attention is invited to a valuable paper, “ The Embryo sac of 
Casuarina stricta ” ( Bot. Gazette , Chicago, xxxvi, 101, Aug., 1903) ; there is an 
abstract in Journ. Royal Hort. Soc. xxviii, p. 631. 
This species yields the largest fruits of any Casuarina in New South Wales. 
Mr. Cambage has measured them 2|- inches long. 
Timber. —The wood is hard, rather pale when fresh, and with prominent 
red medullary rays. It dries to a reddish colour, and has dark bands running 
through it, chiefly in a longitudinal direction, which gives to the polished wood a 
fine mottled appearance, rendering it very suitable for the manufacture of furniture. 
It is also used in turnery and for such articles as bullock-yokes, wheel-spokes, axe- 
handles, staves, shingles, etc. As fuel, it can hardly be excelled (Mueller and J. E. 
