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or less ribbony. In the same State, but more commonly in New South Wales, the 
whole of the trunk and part of the branches becomes covered. The smooth portion 
is white, and thus it follows that the same species may be either a White Gum or a 
Blackbutt. 
Timber. —A timber can scarcely be more fissile than that of the straightest- 
growing and largest of these trees. All trees of this species, however, possess this 
property of fissility in a marked degree. This character has been referred to in 
Mr. Bauerlen’s note given above. In one particular instance a labourer split 650 
5-foot palings in a day. It is pale-coloured and is extensively used for saw-mill 
purposes. 
In its green or sappy state it rends, twists, and warps in the most curious 
fashion. 
When properly seasoned and used for inside or protected work it is a very useful timber, but it is 
wholly, in my opinion, unsuited for purposes where the timber is required to be in the ground. I have 
observed this wood cut and sent on as Blue Gum, and also supplied and used for fencing purposes on the 
railways, probably under the designation of Stringybark.—(A. W. Howitt, Gippsland, in lilt.) 
Should this tree ever be brought into the export trade, the greatest care must be taken in cutting 
it. Seasoning is absolutely a sine qua non to its successful introduction to the home or foreign markets. 
The cutting or sawing of these timbers is also most important; the whole of the Stringybarks and Mountain 
Ash should never be backed off, but always cut on the quarter. If this rule be properly observed by the 
benchmen a good deal of the rending, warping, or twisting will be avoided. Should some cheap method 
of seasoning be discovered, the Mountain Ash would be a good timber for wood-paving.—(Late G. S. Perrin, 
Victoria.) 
The timber of the Victorian “ Mountain Ash ” is one of four colonial timbers 
recommended by the Victorian Carriage Board (1884) for the manufacture of railway 
carriages. The Board reports as follows :— 
Lacking the richness of colour of “ Blackwood ” (Acacia melano.cylo»), it is in appearance less 
attractive for carriage-building (the practice with the Railway Department being not to paint its passenger 
stock, but to varnish), but in other respects we consider it, if not equal, second only to Blackwood for the 
purpose named. 
It should be felled during the winter months, when it has attained maturity, and is at stump 
height, say, between 4 and 5 feet diameter. For six months it might so remain before being broken down 
into plank for seasoning. 
The aborigines of Victoria used to make the Mongile, a double-barbed spear 
made wholly of tvood, of “ Messmate ” ( E . fissilis). For a figure of this spear see 
Brough Smyth’s Aboriginals of Victoria, i, 304. 
Size.—The Giant Trees of Australia. 
The following particulars, written by me, were published in the Sydney 
Morning Ilerald some time ago. They are now reprinted by the kind permission of 
the proprietors of that journal:— 
The greatest claims to possess the tallest trees of the world have been made on behalf of V ictoria, 
most of them from Gippsland. In 1862 Mueller wrote to Scemnnn s Journal of Botany that Mi - . D. Boyle, 
of Nunawading, near Melbourne, has measured a fallen tree in the recesses of the Dandenong, and found 
it to be 420 feet. About the same time he wrote to the Australasian giving more details about this tree, 
which was stated to be 392 feet long. He added 30 feet as a fair estimate of the length of the top, which 
had broken off, and thus we have 420 feet as the height of this tree. 
