818 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JouRNAL. [1 Aprir, 1898. 
Distrisution.—The Bloodwood is the commonest Eucalypt or “ gum-tree”’ 
of Queensland. It is widely spread over the whole of the colony from North 
to South ; but is more plentiful in the coastal districts, where it also attains 
the greater magnitude, than in the inland districts. . It is also found in the 
Northern Territory of South Australia and in New South Wales. 
Usrs.—The Bloodwood furnishes a dark-red, heavy timber. When young 
or newly cut it is soft, but it gradually hardens with age and seasoning. It is 
very subject to gum-veins, or cavities containing large quantities of kino or 
“gum.” This defect has caused a great deal of prejudice against the timber, 
as it will not do for sawn timber. It is very strong and durable underground, 
and is therefore a good timber and muchly used for fencing posts and rails, 
railway sleepers, and rough building purposes. For works where it can be 
used uncut, such as house-stumps, piles for bridges, &c., it is a durable timber. 
Though greatly used for firewood, it will not readily take fire, nor does it 
suffer much from the attack of white ants (termites). 
The kino, or “ gum,” which exudes from the Bloodwood, is of a blood-red 
colour, and has a distinct vinous smell, It is found in cavities between the 
bark and the stem, or between the concentrie circles of the wood. The gum- 
veins are often increased to the size of pockets, owing to the tendency of the 
timber to shell, and the hollows thus formed to be filled with extravasated kino. 
When it exudes through the bark it forms patches which look as if covered 
with blood, whilst the ground at the foot of many of the trees is often so 
covered with kino as to look like blood-stained earth. In appearance it is the 
most brilliant of all kinos. It is exceedingly friable, and is highly astringent. 
Tt contains 43°71 per cent. of kino tannin, and is also rich in “insoluble matter 
kinoised, especially catechu and kionoin” (K. T. Staiger). The aborigines 
used to employ this “gum” or kino for tanning animal skins, and it is algo 
chewed with some effect for dysentery. 
The bark furnishes a good medicinal charcoal, and was at one time used by 
the aborigines of the Moreton Bay district as an antiseptic application to cuts 
and wounds. 
The leaves, like all other Eucalyptus leaves, contain a quantity of oil, but 
not in sufficient quantity as to warrant the extraction commercially profitable. 
Tt is colourless, but rich in cineol (eucalyptol). 
The chief characteristics of the Bloodwood (features which distinguish it 
from other Eucalypts or gum-trees) are :— 
1. The scaly appearance of the bark ; 
2. The fine parallel venation of the leaves : 
3. The size of the flowers—larger than those of many other gums—and 
their corymbose form; and 
4. The shape of the fruit, which is unlike that of any other Eucalypt. 
TIMBER-GETTING IN AUSTRALIA. 
By A. PITMAN CORRIE. 
Avstrarta, in the main, is amply clothed in forests. These forests stand 
settlers in good stead, and supply timber which has a commercial value fitting 
it for export. But there are patches of Australian soil quite bare, and in 
these parts the settler is at his wits’ end to know how to get enough timber to 
build the primitive domicile which he calls his “ humpy,” or to erect fencing 
to check the wanderings of his flocks and herds. Of these colonies South 
Australia is the worst off in the matter of timber supplies, and with respect to 
this we may say that her lot has fallen in an unpleasant place. “ Nature, a 
