basis confirmed by experience. It is of the highest importance 

 therefore, to state the truth on this question, or at least to suggest 

 a doubt seeing that it involves the development and prosperity of 

 our colony of the Gaboon. 



" Dr. Tommasi-Crudeli, member of parliament, one of the most 

 competent men both from his theoretical and practical knowledge 

 to discuss the question, has lately shown, in his report to the 

 Italian Minister of Agriculture, that the history of the Eucalyptus 

 plantations formed at the farm of Trois -Fontaines, in the Roman 

 Oampagna, exhibit the singular fact that, during 1882, the 

 dangerous fevers were actually confined to this locality which was 

 considered to have been rendered healthy for a long time pre- 

 viously, and the convicts employed in the establishments had to 

 be withdrawn. 



" Professor Liversidge, of the University of Sydney, in Australia, 

 has drawn attention to the fact that, for many years, fevers have 

 prevailed with great intensity in the Eucalyptus forests of that 

 country, their native land. 



" Finally, Dr. Tommasi-Crudeli gives the same result in the case 

 of the plantations in Algeria. Having superintended very large 

 plantations of Eucalyptus in Algeria, from Tunis to Morocco (of 

 which several are about fourteen years old) I admit that their 

 success as vegetation is moderately satisfactory. It is incontest- 

 able that many large groves of trees now replace depressions 

 formerly marshy, but it would be impossible to affirm that they 

 have had a febrifugal action. The example of Lake Fetzara has 

 been much quoted ; its marshy miasma infected the large mining 

 works of Mokta-el-Hadid, decimated the staff, and rendered 

 existence in this locality insupportable. Now, thanks to well 

 developed forests of Eucalyptus, it presents all the conditions of a 

 tolerable hygiene. As I first planted these unhealthy slopes and 

 took an active part in the development of some hundreds of 

 thousands of trees, I can readily show how manifest an error it 

 would be to attribute entirely to the Eucalyptus effects the cause 

 of which is to be sought elsewhere. The Eucalyptus plantations 

 have isolated by a curtain of foliage the lake from the works. 

 The material prosperity of the management of the mine has 

 extended itself to the staff ; the means of existence have been 

 easier of attainment, the medical attendance better secured, and, 

 what is of most importance, the greater part of the staff is con- 

 veyed to the mine every morning and taken back in the evening 

 by the first and last trains to Bone, 36 kilometres off, that is to a 

 sea-side town constantly swept by the sea-breezes. 



" The prophylactic action of the Eucalyptus is then far from 

 demonstrated in fever stricken countries; and there cannot 

 a priori he any reason to believe in its direct action, when one 

 remembers the extreme resistance of all these bacteria to the most 

 violent antiseptic agents." 



Blue Gum proved, 

 unsuited for planting ii 



Mr. Home, Director of Forests and Gardens, reported in 1886 :— 



'•The blue guin, Eirmb/pfus Globulus, \b a useless species for 

 Mauriiius and should not be planted except as a garden plant," 



