Page:An account of a voyage to establish a colony at Port Philip in Bass's Strait.djvu/253

( 228 ), while standing, I should think it might answer in small craft and boats.

The pear-tree is so called from its bearing a fruit resembling a pear in shape, but of the hardness of wood; it grows straight, its largest size sixteen inches, and is only fit for joiners' work.

The apple-tree takes its name from the leaf, the limbs are large and crooked, and running from two feet to two and a half, might probably answer for framing and kneeing ships, but has never been tried.

The fig-tree is the banyan tree of the East Indies, well known, for its branches striking downwards and taking root; the wood of it is entirely useless.

It may be remarked, that all the large timber trees of New South Wales, except those growing in swamps, are unsound in the hearts: this probably proceeds from insufficiency of moisture, as