BiT THE REY. DR. WOOLLS, D.D., F.L.S., ETC. 509 



of insects and fungi, tlie damages arising from storms, and many 

 other causes of an injurious character, tend to retard the progress 

 of our gums, and to make their growth exceedingly irregular." 

 This, however, is a subject which remains to be fully investi- 

 gated, and I may add that it is one of considerable difficulty ; for 

 unlike many plants, which may be cultivated in the same sjil 

 and with similar conditions, our Eucalj-pts (numbering as they 

 do between 100 and 200 species and extending from nearly 40° 

 S. to nearly 10° N.) require very different soil and temperature 

 for their proper develoi^ment. Under these circumstances, 

 therefore, more reliance is to be placed in calculations formed on 

 the bases of natural growth in native forests, than on the rearing 

 of trees from seeds by any artificial process. This calculation, 

 indeed, might be partially effected, so far as some of the 

 Cumberland species are concerned, by the accurate measurement 

 of trees which have been known to spring up since the earh- days 

 in paddocks once cleared. It is true that the observation would 

 not extend to many sjiecies, but it would be important as ranging 

 over a period of eighty or ninety years The Tasmanian Stringy 

 Bark fE. oUiqiiaJ is reported to be a tree of very rapid growth, 

 attaining full proportions in fifty or sixty years ; but this cannot 

 be said of the Stringy Bark fE. eugenioides y, which has been 

 growing near Sydney and Parramatta since the beginning of the 

 century, and which yet appears to be only in its infancy. I have 

 never had sufficient leisure to go deeply into the question of the 

 comparative ages of our Eucalypts, but I hope, as Baron F. von 

 Muellei* proceeds with his Eucalyptograpliia, he will extend the 

 observations, which he has already made on the subject in 

 describing the properties of E. ghlidm. It is interesting to 

 notice from remarks of that eminent writer that some forms of 

 E. ami/gdalina (one of vvhich occurs in the western portion of the 

 county of Cumberland under the name E. radiataj are more rapid 

 in growth than the far-famed E. ghlidm. Let us hope that the 

 Baron may pursue this matter to a satisfactory conclusion, and 



