37 
GROUP II. E. PANICULATA. 
CULTIVATION IN NEW ZEALAND. 
Specimens of E. microcorys on the Auckland Isthmus are perfectly healthy 
and have grown at the rate of 3ft. in height and Min. in diameter per annum. 
Other vigorous specimens may be seen 30 miles south of Auckland. The species 
merits competent and persistent experiment on the lowlands and in the lower 
valleys of the North Island, and for this purpose seed should be obtained from 
cold upland parts of the natural habitat. Officers of the New South Wales Forest 
Service should be competent to select best trees in suitable localities. 
19. E. PANICULATA Smith. 
NATURAL HABITAT, DESCRIPTION, AND USES. 
This species belongs to that exceedingly valuable group known as Ironbarks. 
It is regarded by some authorities as the best of them. Its native home is along 
the coastal strip of New South Wales and thence into southern Queensland. It is 
thus restricted to a region where the temperature never falls very low and where 
the rainfall is generous. Within these general boundaries it finds its most 
congenial local conditions on low stony ridges. The trees are small to medium in 
size, only rarely exceeding 80ft. in height and 2ft. in stem diameter. The dead 
bark is non-fibrous, hard, furrowed longitudinally, pale to darker grey, persistent 
on stem and large branches. The juvenile and adult tree leaves are so nearly 
alike that one description will serve for both. They are more or less broadly 
lance-shaped, up to 5in. long, wavy, finely veined, mostly balanced, paler on the 
under-surface. Umbel with flowers up to 7 or 8; stalk compressed /4in. long, 
stalklets angular Min.; lid of bud low-conical; anthers with terminal openings. 
Pipe seed-cup from 3/16in. to 5/16in. in depth and width, 4- to 5-celled, rim narrow, 
open valves with tips just below or a little above rim. The umbels often appear 
in compound clusters or panicles at the ends of the twigs, which character, 
though shared by several other eucalypts, suggested to the botanist, J. E. Smith, 
the specific name paniculata. The Mature wood of this species is pale in co our, 
and is known in the timber trade as grey ironbark. It is dense and horn-like m 
texture, remarkably free from defects of every kind, exceedingly strong, and m 
the very first rank of timbers for resistance to decay in the most trying situations. 
Railway sleepers and electric wire poles from mature trees of E. paniculata will 
easily claim maximum durability. The species, as we have seen, is sub-tropical, 
and cannot be expected to make profitable growth where the thermometer fa s 
much below freezing point. (See E. paniculata, page 85.) 
CULTIVATION IN NEW ZEALAND. 
F xneriments made with E. paniculata on lowlands of the Auckland Province 
are encouraging, and should be followed by further planting m numerous warm 
IL “mo/frStl.ss localities of the North. Seed staidbe obtamed from 
competently certified and approved trees m l\ew South Wales. 
