EL'CALYPTUS. '2o\) 



Artemisia abrotanum, " Southern - wood " (Ganlc-rohe, 

 French) is a native of the south of Europe, and to some extent 

 cultivated. It is a famiUar garden plant in England and is known 

 to country people as " Old Man." Its finely divided greyish- 

 green leaves have a fragrant, refreshing odour and by distillation 

 yield a small quantity of essential oil. 



Eucalyptus. 



The majority of the species of this genus of Myrtacece, numbering 

 over 140, are natives of Australia and Tasmania, where they form 

 characteristic features in the scenery of those countries. A few 

 occur in New Zealand and in some of the islands of the Indian 

 Archipelago. Most of them are large trees. They are distributed 

 throughout all parts of the Australian continent, forming extensive 

 forests, and are there generally known by the name of " Gum 

 Trees " (by reason of the quantity of gum which exudes from their 

 trunks), and are locally distinguished by characters observable in 

 the bark, wdiich, in some of the species is fibrous or stringy, in 

 others hard and fissured, whilst sometimes it presents a smooth and 

 polished surface, and occasionally it scales off in flakes. The 

 botanical determination of the species is often difficult, owing to 

 the close similarity of their floral structure, as well as to the 

 various forms sometimes assumed by the foliage on different 

 portions of the same tree, and the widely different appearances 

 assumed by individual trees at different periods of growth. Maiden, 

 in a valuable paper on " Medicinal plants indigenous to Xew South 

 Wales,* says : — " It is very difficult to trace to individual species 

 the properties ascribed to Eucalyptus and its products. Eucalyptus 

 is a name very loosely used by many people, who forget that this 

 large genus comprises (in Baron Mueller's " Census ") no less than 

 134 species (while a fresh one is continually discovered), and some 

 of these have varieties so well marked as to be classed as distinct 

 species by some authors. It should not be lost sight of that in 

 this vast genus the properties of different species are frequently 

 very different, so that to describe a product as simply "Eucalyptus" 

 is but a bald description, and one likely to lead to great confusion. 

 There is some excuse for this, however, as Eucalyptus products 



* Proc. of Liuneaii Soc. of New South ^yales, 28th Mar., 1888. 



