384 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 May, 1899. 
Leaves.—The leaves are sheath-teeth, arranged in whorls, from 6 to 8, 
usually 7, in number, and are very short and acute, 
Hlowers.—The flowers are dicecious—that is, they have neither calyx nor 
corolla, the stamens with the pistils being on separate flowers. The male 
flowers have only one stamen, and are in spikes about three-quarters of an 
inch in length, and terminate in a slender deciduous branchlet. The female 
flowers possess a one-celled ovary, and are arranged in dense heads, 
Fruit—tThe fruit consists of hardened bracts, collected in a strobilus, or 
compact cone, about half-an-inch in diameter, of a globular shape, each 
enclosing a small shining or velvety winged nut. 
VernacuLar anv, Borantcat Names.—The Horsctail Oak (so called 
from the likeness of its long pendulous branchlets to the long hairs of a 
horse’s tail) is also called Forest Oak (from growing in small patches or 
forests) ; Coast Oak (from its growing generally on the coast) ; Swamp Oak 
(from its growing in swampy localities) ; Bull Oak (from its robust growth) ; 
and Ironwood (from the hardness of its timber). It is called Aitoa or Toa in 
the Society Islands, Filao in Madagascar, and Noko-noko in the Fiji Islands, 
The specific name, equisctifolia, was given to this species by the Forster 
brothers, writers on Australian botany, from the resemblance of the branches 
to an Eguisetum or Horsetail. , 
Disrrieurion.—The Horsetail Oak loves a maritime situation, growing 
freely in sandy saline soils. It is found growing in great abundance near 
salt-water marshes and inlets on the coasts of tropical Queensland, North 
Australia, New Guinea, the Malayan Archipelago, the Indian Archipelago, on 
the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal as far north as Aracan, Eastern Africa, » 
Madagascar, the South Sea Islands (Fiji, Society Islands, &.), &e. 
Usus.—The Horsetail Oak’ produces a dark-coloured timber, coarse but 
closely grained, beautifully marked, hard, light, and tough. It is useful for 
shingles, staves, and veneers, and for all purposes where lightness and tough. 
ness are required. Its timber makes splendid fuel, giving great heat and 
leaving very few ashes. 
In the Society Islands, where it grows chiefly on the sides of the hills, its 
timber was formerly used for making clubs and other implements of war, Its 
hardness and durability led the earlier voyagers to the South Seas to distinguish 
it as Ironwood, although it is a very different tree from that bearing the same 
name in North America. (This latter is botanically known as Carpinus 
americana, Mich.) Its dark hairlike pensile foliage gives it a mournful 
appearance, and in many of the islands of the Pacific it is consecrated to the. 
dead, and, with crimson Dracenas and other shrubs and trees, is planted in 
or near burial-grounds. This tree has long been cultivated in gardens and 
nurseries, and has been introduced into France and India and other countries, 
It bears transplanting well, and will grow in sandy soil even to the edge of the 
sea. Captain Campbell Walker estimates the yield of firewood from this tree. 
to be four times as great as the return from any tree of the forests of France, 
In India, where it grows on pure sand, it is greatly valued, as its timber bears. 
a great strain, and is not readily injured by submersion in water, and it-is also. 
much used as fuel for railway locomotives. The cost of rearing Casuqrinas in 
India has averaged, according to localities, from £4 to £10 per acre, and the 
return, after only eight years, averaged from £13 to £32. I would recom. — 
mend this tree as a valuable’ one to plant on the coastal portions of our barren — 
“wallum’’ patches. ‘ 
The branchlets of this, as of other Casuarinas, have a sub-acid flavour, and 
are readily eaten and relished by cattle, especially during the droughty seasons 
in Queensland, and in many parts it is pollarded for fodder. 
A variety of Casuarina equisetifolia, Forst., named incana, having horny 
or woolly young shoots and large cones nearly an inch in diameter, is found on 
the islands off the Queensland coust and also in N ew South Wales. 
“a 
