GUM TREES of Australia are of several genera. The grass gum trees, Xanthorrhosa, sp., and Kingia Australis, R. Br., plants of Australia, bear some outward resemblance to each other, but belong respectively to the lily and the rush families. The blue gum tree of Tasmania (Eu calyptus globulus) and its ally E. corynocalyx of South Australia, and other species ; also Cordy line congesta, Moreton Bay ; Seaforthia elegans, Dammara robusta, of Queensland.
GUN. Several of the old cannon in the Peninsula of India are of great size. That with the largest diameter is at Bijapur. It was cast at Ahmad naggur about A.D. 1549, by a supposed native of Constantinople, named Rumi Khan, also Husain Khan, and the bed of its foundry was still unlevelled in A.D. 1839 ; it was close to Rumi Khan's mausoleum, which had been converted into a dwelling-house. . The gun was dragged to Bija pur by means of elephants and bullocks. Rumi Khan was the Mir-atish, or commandant of artillery, under the Nizam Shah Bhairi dynasty of Ahmad naggur. The length of this gun is 15 feet, and calibre is 2 feet 4 inches, and a full-grown man can creep into it. It remains on a bastion of Bijapur and Hindus have besmeared it with red -lead and worship it. Another gun may be seen not
far off, on the summit of the high tower called the Oopuri Boorj, measurin,g 30 feet in length, and composed of bars of iron welded or rather bound together. The legend current regarding the Oopuri Boorj is that one of the kings, wisli ing to get his city fortified with as little expense to himself as possible, gave each of his nobles a certain portion of wall and rampart to build, and excited the greatest emulation among them as to whose work should be best done. One of the chief nobles was absent at this time, and on his return found the cit'y completely walled in, and his peers rejoicing in their patriotic endeavours. Stung at being excluded from such a grand work, he expostuhtted with the king, who, to comfort him, promised him that lie should build one that would surpass in height and splend our the work of the others. Hence this bastion. A built gma 27 feet long is now lying on the top of Gawilgarh Hill, and one 21 feet long was on the walls of Beder in 1869.