THE EUCALYPTUS IN THE FUTURE. 671 



What, then, is the logic of these facts ? Let us give the geologist 

 the last word; for it may be that, from his habit of dealing with the 

 floras and the faunas of the long ago, his generalization may be more 

 profound than that of the mere systematic botanist. 



What about the eccentricities of the young eucalypt ? Our men- 

 tor here denies the eccentricity in the sense of freakiness. He sees in 

 it a law of the Creator. The young eucalypt, he thinks, in its mar- 

 velous vigor of growth, is tending to, or striving after, the forms and 

 conditions of the higher and more recent groups ; but that, with 

 something of its growth-vigor abated in the adult state, it reverts 

 back to its legitimate ancestral type. But we may not be too know- 

 ing ; and surely a devout science can well afford to admit with rever- 

 ence that " His ways are past finding out." 



Aud this delver in the earth after organic relics assures us that 

 these eucalypts are an extremely ancient race, and that they were for- 

 merly wide-spread. He even finds them in the Eocene times, compos- 

 ing in part the great forests of Europe. These, he tells us, were the 

 arboreal ancestors of the gum-trees of Australia ; and he bids us note 

 that, of the existing floras of the world, that of Australia has the high- 

 est antiquity. With this instance, as almost paralleled, we may ad- 

 duce the " big trees " of California. There can be no doubt that these 

 gigantic and graceful trees once covered a large area, extending into 

 an antiquity scarcely less ancient than that of the eucalypts. Even 

 snow-clad Greenland in that ancient time had its flowery age, and was 

 a home for the princely sequoias. ' Now, what reduced them to but 

 two species, and what pushed them over the mountains, and bade 

 them be content with that small domain centred by the Calaveras 

 grove ? And what a change must earth have undergone, that Aus- 

 tralia should be isolated from its once-continental alliance, and these 

 noble eucalypts, the tallest Titans that the world has known, should 

 be thus put upon their limits ! The sequoias promise little, and seem 

 doomed ere long to pass away. Beyond their beauty and scientific 

 interest, their virtues are few. Not so with the eucalypts. Give 

 them a fair showing of place and climate, and they will thrive and 

 enrich their environment. This tree has the hardiness of the ancient ; 

 it also has virtues which will enlarge the comforts and lengthen the 

 days of men. As when some beneficent art, once enjoyed by a former 

 people, has been lost, and, long known only in tradition, has been re- 

 discovered and revived, and men are again enlivened with hope, so is 

 the possession by the modern world of this ancient tree. 



