Australian Casuarina suberosa, Erect She-Oak tree. Antique lithograph c1898.

by Maiden, J.H.

Antique print of Erect She-Oak or Forest Oak (which is actually the common name for Casuarina torulosa), Shingle-Oak, River Black Oak, and Beef-wood. In Tasmania is known as Swamp Oak and Marsh Oak. Casuarinas are found in south and eastern coastal districts and mountain ranges.

This distinctive family of trees is from the natural order of Casuarineae. What are popularly considered to be leaves are actually branchlets. The true leaves are represented by small scales that are acidulous to the taste and are often chewed by aborinals and bushmen, as they stimulate the flow of saliva, and temporarily quench thirst. They are very nutritious for stock, so they are valuable in pastoral country and have saved the lives of large numbers of seep and cattle in times of drought. She-oaks should be simply pollarded for this, so that the trees suffer no permanent injury.

Original colour-printed lithograph by Messrs. E.W. Minchen, and H.J.A. Baron, under the guidance of botanical draughtsman Mr. R.T. Baker, with botanical and common names by English botanist George Bentham. Published in Sydney between 1895 and 1898 as “The Flowering Plants and Ferns of New South Wales” by J.H. Maiden, F.L.S., Assisted by W.S. Campbell, F.L.S., they were intended to familiarize the public with the Colony’s principal flowering shrubs, plants and ferns, and forest trees of economic value.

This lovely lithograph is 225 x 150mm (9 x 6 inches)