46 Hardy, Tall Trees of Australia. [v<J ct 'xxxv 



THE TALL TREES OF AUSTRALIA. 



By A. D. Hardy, F.L.S., State Forests Department. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists 1 Club of Victoria, i ith March, 1918.) 



" The Sequoia is not only the oldest of trees, but the mightiest, 

 and, while from time to time there have been reports of rivals 

 in Australia, yet these rivals, when brought to the ultimate 

 test — that of the tape-line — have shrunk before it, leaving 

 the Sequoia the monarch of them all." Thus the American 

 Museum of Natural History expresses what might be taken 

 to be the last word on the question of tall tree sizes. 



It is not the intention in the present paper to challenge the 

 claim quoted above, but I propose to give, among other notes, 

 some tape-line measurements, and introduce some survey 

 figures, in order to raise the Australian record to the point of 

 respectful competition, without boasting. 



If reports be true, the greatest girth record belongs to neither 

 Sequoia nor Eucalyptus, for a Cypress at Santa Maria, Mexico, 

 according to F. Starr, has a circumference of 160 feet at 

 4 feet above ground. In " Les Merveilles de la Vegetation " 

 (F. Marion, Paris, 1866) we may read of some old trees of 

 enormous girth, many of them oaks. The old Dragon Tree, 

 near the summit of Teneriffe, with height 24 metres and dia- 

 meter 15 metres, and others, are apt to be lost sight of. The 

 circumference of the Mount Etna Chestnut is said to be 180 

 feet. Knight and Stepp give 50 feet as the diameter of an 

 Oriental Plane near Constantinople, while a Lime (Tilia) in 

 Lithuania has an unchallenged girth record of 87 feet. 



And since the height of a tree is also its length, we may 

 note that neither Eucalyptus nor Sequoia is anything like 

 champion among long plants, the reputed length of the Great 

 Sea- Wrack (Macrocystis) being up to 900 feet (one writer gives 

 "500 metres"!); and one of the Climbing Palms (Calamus) 

 is stated by Gosse "to be found almost a quarter of a mile in 

 length," which astonishes even Knight and Stepp, who quote 

 his statement (from " Omphalos"). Schimper, however, states 

 that Treub measured a torn-down portion of one of these 

 climbers, and found it to be 240 metres (788 feet). 



American publications treat mostly of living trees that can 

 be viewed to-day by anyone visiting the Sequoia country in 

 California, and this is where we must take second place. We 

 can produce some fine records and some very tall trees, but 

 probably nothing quite so huge as the giant conifers. The 

 great Sequoias have been preserved as objects of national pride 

 and as of wide interest ; our giants have vanished, and by this 

 time have rejoined the humic layer, and, unrecognized, stare 



