PAPERS READ. 



REMARKS ON THE DECAY OF CERTAIN SPECIES 

 OF EUCALYPTI. 



By K, H. Bennett, Esq. 



In a recent issue of the Sydney Mail, [ noticed mention of a 

 paper lately read by the Rev. Peter McPherson at a Meeting of 

 the Royal Society, on the decay of our Forest Trees, and I observe, 

 that gentleman advances the theory that this decay is caused by 

 the opossums. 



From personal observation on this subject I am convinced that 

 to a great extent, at any rate — such is the case. The portion of 

 the neighbouring Colony of Victoria (Gipps Land) in which I 

 resided some five and twenty years ago, at that time swarmed 

 with these animals. Some idea of their numbers may be formed 

 when I state that just before I left that locality I knew of a party 

 of four men, who undertook to procure a quarter of a million skins, 

 and I subsequently heard from a friend who still resides there that 

 they obtained the required number in a comparatively short time. 

 The increase in the numbers of opossums had been going on for 

 some years pi'ior to the period of which I speak, in consequence of 

 the great decrease in the numbers of the natives who were formerly 

 very numerous, and these animals formed their chief article of food. 

 It was not until the opossums had become exceedingly plentiful 

 that their injurious efi'ect on the trees was apparent to any great 

 extent, and my attention was drawn to the dead and dying 

 Eucalypts ; the cause I soon discovered to be the opossums and I 

 noticed that almost without exception the trees attacked were 

 either Red Gum, E. rostrata or Yellow Box, E. mellidora. 



