BY A NORTON, M.L.A. 19 
country, it is also subject to long periods of comparatively 
dry weather. Asa rule there is sufficient rain to keep the 
ground in a state of perpetual dampness, and consequently 
the forest trees are accustomed to a continuous supply of 
moisture from the ground, and this imparts to them in a 
small degree the character of aquatic plants. This is just so 
much the case that they feel the effect of dry weather 
much more readily than trees which grow on drier country. 
Their more bountiful foliage necessitates an uninterrupted 
flow of sap, and when from any cause this is checked, their 
healthy growth becomes an aétual source of weakness rather 
than of strength. It follows then that a long continuance 
of dry weather will produce a sickly condition in trees 
which have been accustomed to almost unlimited moisture. 
But these spells of dry weather are commonly succeeded by 
deluges of rain which, in the then condition of the trees, may be 
almost as detrimental as too little. Many of the more delicate 
plants which occupy prominent places in greenhouses may 
be killed by first stinting them till they are in a weakly 
condition and then flooding them with water, and there 
seems to be no reason to doubt that similar treatment may 
have similar results in the case of trees of large growth, 
though they are not so immediately perceptible. Another 
contributing cause may be excessive cold. Within the 
last few years bloodwoods (Eucalyptus corymbosa) and 
other evergreen trees about the head of the Burnett River 
have been denuded of their leaves by the exceptionally cold 
weather, and some of them have been killed. In the colder 
climate of New England the forest trees ought to be accus- 
tomed to any amount of frost; but if they have been first 
weakened by want of rain, then further tried by too great a 
quantity, their protecting foliage thinned by the trials to 
which they have been exposed, it is easy to believe that 
their natural hardihood would not be able to withstand an 
unusually severe winter, and that in some cases they would 
die off, while in others they would be so far injured that 
the appearance which has become so common, of dead 
branches and a general want of vitality, would be the 
inevitable consequence. 
Against this conclusion it might be reasonably urged 
that, if this was the true explanation of the natural decay 
