Page:Report on the forest resources of Western Australia 1879.djvu/15

 timber of which, notwithstanding close specific affinity of the trees themselves, is often found to be widely different in its adaptability to particular work, or in its resistance to the ravages of insects or other destructive creatures, whether of animal or (as fungi) vegetable growth. Besides, an intimate knowledge of each particular species will also render any culture of them easier, in choosing for each the clime and soil respectively best adapted for them. Hence descriptive details and lithographic illustrations are now offered, to render the recognition of at least the leading South-West Australian species safe and altogether free from difficulty.

1. Eucalyptus marginata. Smith, in the Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, vi. 302 (1802). Bentham's Flora Australiensis, iii. 209. The Yarrah-tree, or West Australian Mahogany-Eucalypt.

Leaves scattered, on moderately long stalks, from oval to narrow-lanceolar, somewhat curved, acuminate, paler and not shining underneath, with numerous very spreading veins, the intramarginal vein at some slight distance from the edge; flower-stalks almost all axillary, with three to twelve flowers, slender and usually compressed; the stalklets (of each individual flower) longer than the tube of the calyx; lid from semi-elliptical to narrow conical, about twice as long as the tube; stamens all perfect, flexuose, but not bent back before expansion; anthers heart- or kidney-shaped, opening by longitudinal slits; fruit ovate-globular, truncate, the margin of the summit flat; valves three, enclosed or but slightly exserted; seeds without membranous appendage.

The Yarrah-tree extends over the greater portion of the country from the Moore river to KingGeorge's Sound, advancing also to Cape Leeuwin, forming mainly the forests of these tracts. Isolated patches of straggling trees occur in some places beyond the main area here indicated. It does not enter to any extent the forests of Karri and York Gum-trees. The tree exceeds occasionally 100 feet, but rarely 150 feet in height. On account of its persistent and somewhat flbrous bark, it would be classed with the " stringy bark trees" of the eastern colonies, had it been an inmate of the forests there. Hence in the cortical system it must be inserted among the Pachyphloiae. The wood has attained a world-wide celebrity; when especially selected from hilly localities, cut while the sap is least active, and subsequently carefully dried, it proves impervious to the borings of the Chelura, Teredo, and Termites; it is therefore in extensive demand for jetties, piles, railway-sleepers, fence-posts, and all kinds of underground structures, and it is equally important as one of the most durable for the planking and frames of ships. It is also much used locally for flooring, rafters, spars, and furniture; though hard (particularly that of the ironstone ranges) it is easier worked than wood of E. loxophleba and E. redunca. The timber from hills is darker, tougher, and heavier than that from plains. The weight of well -seasoned wood is, at an average, about sixty -four pounds for the cubic foot. It is one of the least inflammable for building structures, and one of the very best in West Australia for charcoal, not burning so readily into ashes as most kinds of Eucalyptus-wood. Stems have been measured eighty feet to the first branch, with a circumference of thirty-two feet at five feet from the ground. For shingles the wood is doubly as durable as even that of Casuarina Fraseriana, though it is more apt somewhat to warp, if not well selected.

In explaining in this and all other cases the uses of any particular Eucalypt, it must be understood that it is not attempted in these pages to sum up all the purposes for which any particular species of timber can be employed. This cannot fully and satisfactorily be done from such inquiries as, amidst multifarious engagements and observations, the writer could carry ouc during the short periods of his travels in West Australia, but must be left to the circumspectness of local artisans, whose accumulated experiences during the fifty years' existence of the colony must have become both extensive and reliable. This much, however, can be foreseen, that E. marginata is destined to supply one of the most lasting of hardwood timbers for a long time to come, at the least costly rate, to very many parts of the globe.

The specific name adopted by Sir James Smith for Eucalyptus marginata is not very expressive,