1 Jury, 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 77 
in great repute for posts and rails in fencing, as it does not readily take fire. 
Jt is one of the best of fencing timbers against the attacks of white ants, and 
fencing posts haye been known to be good after twenty-five years’ service. 
Though far superior to many of the timbers accepted as suitable for railway 
sleepers, it is rarely taken, on account of the bolts working loose in the timber, 
which in good ironbark they never do. 
It yields a dull reddish gum, which contains 35:56 per cent. of kino-tannin, 
Being one of the finest of Bucalypts, of rapid growth, and lofty in stature, 
its pillar-like trunk being often devoid of branches for three-fourths of its 
entire height, as well as often ornamental in its habits, it is a tree well worthy 
of cultivation. 
THE BLACKBUTT (EUCALYPTUS PILULARIS, Sm.) 
Borantcat Descrtprron.—The Blackbutt is a very large tree, generally 
growing straight and tall, and attaining a general height of from 60 to 150 feet, 
with a circumference varying from 8 to 15 feet or more. On good soils it 
attains a height of as much as 200 feet, with a diameter of as much as 15 feet 
It attains perhaps the biggest bulk of any tree in Australia. 
' Bark.—The bark is brownish, or somewhat dark-coloured, and somewhat 
furrowed persistent and fibrous, especially on the base of the trunk and on 
the main branches—that on the upper portion of the trunk and of the 
smaller branches being deciduous, or falling off in stripes, leaving them 
smooth. 
Leaves.—The leaves are alternate or opposite, mostly lanceolate, tapering 
from the base towards the point, more or less curved, sometimes nearly straight, 
from 8 to 6 inches long, smooth and thick, with numerous fine rather oblique 
parallel veins. 
Flowers.—Vhe flowers are from 6 to 12 in number, and appear in bloom 
from September to December. 
Fruit.—The fruit is semi-globose or subglobose in shape, and from a 
quarter to nearly half aninchindiameter. Seeding time is from March to June. 
Vernacunar axp Borantcan Name.—The Blackbutt (so called from the 
dark colour of its butt or lower portions of the trunk) is also known as the 
Blackbutted Gum and Flintwood (the latter name being given to it from the 
hardness of the timber when in a dry state). The specific name, pdlularis, 
was given to it by Sir J. E. Smith (the founder of the Linnean Society) from the 
subglobose fruit. It is, however, not well chosen, as other species of 
Hucalypti have fruits more pillular in shape. 
Distrisurron.—Lhe Blackbutt is usually a tree of the open forests in 
elevated districts, but is also found on level country near rivers, especially in 
the coastal districts. It is found more or less along the eastern seaboard of 
Australia from Gippsland, Victoria, to North Queensland. 
Usrs.—ihe Blackbutt furnishes an excellent and valuable timber of a 
light-grey or pale-grey colour, and is hard, tough, and durable. It is one of 
the strongest of Australian timbers, will stand exposure, and is not liable to 
rot in the ground. It is close and very straight in the grain. Jt is much used 
for house carpentry (especially as flooring-boards), in shipbuilding (decking 
and planking), for wharves, piles, bridges, and culverts, and any purpose where 
strength and durability are required. It is extensively used for fencing 
purposes, splitting into posts, rails, and even palings very easily. It is also 
used for telegraph poles and ships’ masts, and to some extent for railway 
sleepers. It is useful for wheelwright’s work, and is one of the best timbers 
for woodpaving. It also furnishes one of the best of charcoals. 
Its liability to gum-veins has prejudiced the timber of the Blackbutt in 
public favour. When free from them, it is second in point of durability, hard- 
ness, and strength only to Ironbark. From observations of the timber of this 
tree, I think that the veins exist only in the butt portion of each tree (that 
