348 Transactions of the 



of growth, cannot fail to strike even an indifferent observer. In the 

 young saplings of the "blue gum" (eucalyptus glauca) the foliage is 

 glaucous, of a bluish white tint, with the leaves opposite, rounded, and 

 horizontal, and teeming with an oil resembling cajeput. In the adult, 

 the leaves are long, scattered, and rigid, and hang vertically from the 

 branches. The blossoms are generally in small clusters, in color either 

 white or rose-pink, which latter render the tree a pretty object during 

 the Spring months. After the blossom there remains a hard woody 

 calyx of a semi globular or tube-like form, which contains the seed in a 

 series of cells. These eucalyptus seeds afford food to myriads of black 

 and white cockatoos and other psittacine birds, as do the aromatic leaves 

 of the tree to the opossums that dwell in its hollow " boles." 



Many kinds of eucalyptus, especially the " blue gum," are very rapid 

 in their growth upwards, and when planted out soon afford an agreeable 

 shade; though the giants that grow along the courses of the rivers, and 

 ornament in clusters the upland slopes, must have taken many centuries 

 to attain their enormous circumference. The eucalyptus globulus has 

 been naturalized at the Cape, in Algeria, in St. Helena, in Cuba, and 

 in many other places; and thirty years back it was planted in quantities 

 on the Madras hills, to afford a supply of firewood, which was there 

 scarce, and for which its timber is unrivaled, on account of the quantity 

 of resin it contains. In your green-houses it soon attains a great height, 

 as the specimens growing in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, and the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, in Regent's Park, well demonstrate. Even as 

 far north as the Island of Jersey it seems to thrive tolerably well in the 

 open air in sheltered situations. 



Both the gum which exudes from the stem of these trees, and a 

 decoction of their leaves, are invaluable in cases of dysentery, and have 

 long been used by the settlers and gold-diggers as a cure for that com- 

 plaint. Dr. Lindley mentions in his "Flora Medica," that the bark of 

 the gum tree is so extremely astringent, as to yield a concrete juice 

 resembling kino, which is gathered and sold as such, being little 

 inferior to the Indian drug. After rain the eucalypti gives out the smell 

 of the camphor with which the glands of the foliage are so abundantly 

 supplied; and the gum (which is at first of a bright crimson color, but 

 afterwards changes to a dark shining red) trickles down the trunk like 

 blood. When dry upon the trunk this gum has so little tenacity as to 

 crumble into fragments. Eucalyptus mannifera (the manna tree of the 

 colonists) grows in abundance near Melbourne. It exudes a whitish, 

 saccharine, mucous substance, resembling manna both in action and 

 appearance, but is less nauseous to the taste. The secretion of the 

 manna takes place during the Summer months; it coagulates, and drops 

 from the leaves on the ground in particles often as large as an almond. 

 It is gathered and eagerly devoured by the blacks, as well as by the 

 children of the settlers. The tree itself is of elegant drooping growth, 

 ai.'l attains a height of from sixty to seventy feet. The dwarf "mallee," 

 of the desert scrub, also produces large quantities of another kind of 

 manna of a brown color; and it is affirmed by the natives that the roots 

 of the "malice," which spread a long distance under the sand, give out, 

 when tapped, a limpid fluid, which serves them as a substitute for water 

 in those arid districts. 



The lemon-scented gum tree (E. ci.triodora') is peculiar to the Wide 

 Bi»3' District in Queensland. It is of remarkably rapid growth; a sap- 

 ling, planted in the Botanic Gardens at Sidney, attained the altitude of 

 thirty-five feet in less than six years. The leaves of this species, when 



