98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



Before the year 1868, the abbey was entirely deserted. It is true 

 that a haggard-looking monk was to be found there, who acted as 

 cicerone to visitors to the churches ; but even he was obliged to sleep 

 each night in Rome. The place attained so evil a rej^utation that it 

 was locally known as " The Tomb." There are now twenty-nine 

 Brothers attached to the monastery, all of whom sleep there each 

 night. This remarkable result, though no doubt to a great extent due 

 to the drainage and alteration of the character of the soil by cultiva- 

 tion, is unquestionably mainly owing to the planting of the eucalyptus. 

 It would take long to tell of the heroic perseverance of these monks ; 

 of the frequent discouragements, of the labor interrupted by sickness, 

 of the gaps made in their number by the fatal malaria, and the un- 

 daunted courage in overcoming obstacles which has culminated in the 

 result now achieved. Let us pass to the consideration of the actual 

 means by which so happy a change in their immediate surroundings 

 has been brought about. At Tre Fontane are cultivated at least 

 eleven varieties of eucalyptus. Some of these, as E. viminalis and 

 JE. hotryo'ldes, flourish best where the ground is naturally humid ; PJ. 

 resinifera and PJ. meliodora love best a drier soil. The variety Globu- 

 lus (blue gum-tree) possesses a happy adaptability to nearly any pos- 

 sible condition of growth. At the monastery, as in most elevated 

 parts of the Campagna, the soil is of volcanic origin, and there is not 

 much even of that ; often only eight, and rarely more than sixteen 

 inches overlying the compact tufa. But, with the aid of very simple 

 machinery, the Trappists bore into the subsoil, blast it with dynamite, 

 and find, in the admixture of its debris with the arable earth, the most 

 suitable soil for the reception of the young plants. 



The seeds are sown in autumn, in a mixture of ordinary garden- 

 earth, the soil of the country, and a little thoroughly decomposed ma- 

 nure. This is done in wooden boxes, which, with the object of keeping 

 the seeds damp, are lightly covered until germination has taken place. 

 When the young plants have attained to about two inches, they are 

 transferred to very small flower-pots, where they remain until the time 

 arrives for their final trai^splantation. The best time for this operation 

 is in spring, because the seedlings have then quite eight months in 

 which to gather strength against the winter cold. One precaution 

 taken in planting is worth notice. Each plant is placed in a hole of 

 like depth and diameter. In this way, no individual rootlet is more 

 favored than its fellow, and, as each absorbs its soil-nutriment equally, 

 the regularity of growth and of the final form of the tree is assured. 

 A space of three feet is left between each seedling ; but so rapid is the 

 growth, that in the following year it is found necessary to uproot 

 nearly one half of the plants, which finally find themselves at a dis- 

 tance from each other of about five feet. From this time, much care 

 is required in weeding and particularly in sheltering from the wind, 

 for the stem of the eucalyptus is particularly fragile, and violent storms 



