Volume 5

Eucalyptographia : a descriptive atlas of the eucalypts of Australia and the adjoining islands / by Baron Ferd. von Mueller.

  • Mueller, Ferdinand von, 1825-1896.
Date:
1879-1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Eucalyptographia : a descriptive atlas of the eucalypts of Australia and the adjoining islands / by Baron Ferd. von Mueller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/58
    of the largest oaks taken together with their branches. A standing tree at the same place measured 3 feet from the ground 102 feet in circumference, but close to the ground even 130 feet! The rev. gentleman observed within a square mile at least . 100 trees, none less than 40 feet in circumference at the base (Dr. Masters). Mr. G. Robinson noticed in the back-ranges of Berwick the circumference of a stem to be even 81 feet at a distance of 4 feet from the ground. (See Ellwood Cooper’s edition of some of my lectures and essays, p. 161). The same gentleman, whose professional judgment as a surveyor would give every guarantee for accuracy, obtained at the foot of Mount Baw Baw the measurement of an exceptionally large tree, which was 471 feet high. From the Cape Otway-Ranges a tree is also on record by Mr. Walter, with a height of 415 feet and a basal diameter of 15 feet, although the loftiest trees have not always the most colossal stems. But though this Eucalypt of ours will probably maintain the actual supremacy in height among trees of the globe, it must cede the palm of superiority perhaps to the Wellingtonia-Sequoia and the only other congener of the Mammoth-tree of California in respect to height combined with massive ramification and a crown of foliage dense to the summit in Sequoias—because the final extraordinary height of E. amygdalina is often attained only by a solitary straggling branch, pushing singly towards the sky. It is a grand picture to see a mass of enormously tall trees of this kind with stems of mast-like straightness and clear whiteness so close together in the forest as to allow them space only towards their summit to send their scanty branches and sparse foliage to the free light. The timber is useful for many kinds of carpenters’ work ; in drying it does not twist; when straight stems are produced in forest-valleys the wood splits better into palings than even that of our Stringybark-tree, and this with such facility, that in some particular instance a laborer has split 620 palings of 5 feet length in one day ; the timber is comparatively not heavy, as it floats in water, unlike that of many other Eucalypts ; it is particularly well adapted for shingles, palings and rails and also drawn into use for shipbuilding, especially kelsons and planking (see F. v. M., Select Plants, Indian edition p. 107), but it has not been found very lasting underground and does not afford a superior fuel; indeed the stems, when fallen, perish more quickly than those of many other Eucalypts, and thus the records of individual trees of marvellous height, when measured lying on the ground, are often early lost. The utmost praise is due to Joseph Bosisto, Esq., M.L.A., J.P., for his lengthened and extensive researches on the oil of this and other congeners, to the technical production, local utilisation and mercantile export of which he has given large dimensions by his enterprise and perseverance, it having fallen to the writer’s share to draw in first instance attention to the enormous yield of oil from the foliage of E. amygdalina. Mr. Bosisto sums up his experience with the Eucalyptus-oils, as regards the percentage of the yield of the various species, on which he experimented, in the followinu schedule :— From 1,000 lbs. of fresh leaves with their stalklets and branchlets— Eucalyptus viminalis yields ... ... 7 ounces Eucalyptus goniocalyx yields... 150 ounces melliodora yields 7 „ Leucoxylon yields 160 „ rostrata yields 15 „ oleosa (mixed with other species obliqua yields 80 „ of the Mallee-scrub) yields ... 200 „ globulus yields ... 120 „ amygdalina yields 500 „ But this average-yield, thus demonstrated by Mr. Bosisto to rise to more than 3 per cent, in E. amygdalina, fluctuates during the various seasons, it being during the cool months of the year