195 
No. 15. Part IV. 
Fusanus acuminatus , R.Br. 
THE QUANDONG. 
(Natural Order Santalace^e.) 
Santalum. —See vol. i, p. 103. 
Sant alum lanceolatum, R.Br.—This is a tree with light brown bark and very pale wood, often 
called “ The Blacks’ Medicine Tree,” from the fact that the bark soaked in water was formerly used by 
the aborigines for medicinal purposes.—(R. H. Cambage, in Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. , 1900, p. 598.) 
No. 16. Part Y. 
Tfistania conferta , R.Br. 
THE BRUSH BOX. 
(Natural Order Myrtacea:.) 
Timber. —See vol. i, p. 3. 
Eollowing is an extract from a letter to the Daily Telegraph, Sydney, of 9tli 
September, 1903 :— 
About 1890, I had a large contract for the Melbourne Harbour Trust. The specifications 
stated red gum, red ironbark, and box. The only box timber about here is brush box, and I cut some 
16,000 feet of this, 12x4, for decking, and shipped it with ironbark. My agent in Melbourne sent me 
a wire that the inspector for the Harbour Trust had rejected all the box. I at once saw Mr. Ednie Brown, 
got letters from him, went to Melbourne, showed the letters to the chairman of the Harbour Trust, and 
got their inspector to give the brush box a trial asking him to place it alongside either karri or jarrah. 
This was done. Two years after I got word that the box was the best to stand the heavy traffic, having 
beaten all other timber. Surely that was good enough. I have made use of brush box for both flooring 
and lining boards, and have proved that white ants will not touch it, while other timbers alongside have 
been destroyed, and there are other scrub woods equally good.—(W. T. Pullen, Woolgoolga.) 
A few years ago Scrub Box was described as firewood. It is most valuable for many purposes, and 
though on account of its having to be dressed green, it warps too much for “ tongue and groove” boards, 
it is very good for weatherboards.—(A. W. Deane, L. S., Lismore.) 
The following interesting letter by Mr. D. A. Rogers, timber merchant, 
contains useful notes in regard to the Brush Box :— 
When in Glasgow I made strict inquiry, together with inspection, of the varions systems adopted 
by the Corporation, and, no doubt, as an adopted Australian, my tastes went in favour of wood of which 
some fair examples can be found in that city ; still, I was forced to admit that climatic conditions in 
Glasgow were not so favourable to wood-blocking as here. Two things seemed apparent to me in my 
inspections : first subsidence, and second decayed blocks, and the reasons I naturally attributed were— 
subsidence, due to imperfect or insufficient bedding, or heavier traffic than has to be contended with in 
Sydney; decay of blocks, imperfect knowledge of the hardwoods used; and an admixture of the blocks 
cut from logs that had passed the stage of maturity, and only required a damp and humid atmosphere to 
hasten decomposition. The decaying blocks pointed out were said to be jarrah, and knowing our colonial 
mahogany—which is simply the former with another State name—I had no difficulty in stating that like 
conditions would apply with either timber under similar conditions, and recommended there, as I also do 
here, “Brush Box ” as the very best of all paving timbers, in so far as it is unrivalled in durability under¬ 
ground, while in most atmospheres it has little contraction, and maintains a soft-springy surface unequalled 
with any other timber with which T am acquainted. Baltic is used in many parts, is cheaper than 
hardwood, but on sanitary grounds is an undesirable element in street formation. An objection to 
