112 THE EUCALYPTS OF GIPPSLANI). 



now 60ft. high, which in 1863 were only small saplings luider 5ft. in height. On the 

 road from Sale to Port Albert, which was formed somewhere about 1858-59, there 

 are numerous places where E. viminalis and E. mnelleriana and other species are now 

 growing, upon the ditches formed at the sides of the road. Those, for instance, at 

 Lillies Leaf are on an average about 30ft. high. 



These instances show how the occupation of Gippsland by the white man has 

 absolutely caused an increased growth of the Eucalyptus forests in places. I venture, 

 indeed, to say with a feeling of certainty, produced by long observation, that, taking 

 Gippsland as a whole, from the Great Dividing Range to the sea, and from the 

 boundary of Westernport to that of New South Wales, that, in spite of the clearings • 

 which have been made by selectors and others, and in spite of the destruction of 

 Eucalypts by other means (to which I am about to refer), the forests are now more 

 widely extended and more dense than they were when Angus M'Millan first descended 

 from the Omeo plateau into the low country. 



I have spoken just now of the destruction of Eucalypts by other means than the 

 hand of man, for clearing his holdings, and the following are the facts I have gathered 

 concerning the subject : — 



About the year 1863-4 I observed that a belt of Red-gums which extended across 

 the plains between Sale, Maffra, and Stratford were beginning to die. Gradually all 

 the trees of this forest, as well as in other localities, perished. At that time my 

 attention was not drawn to the investigation of the cause. Later, however, probably 

 about 1878, 1 observed the Red-gum forests of the Mitchell River Valley to be dying, 

 just as those at Nuntin and elsewhere had died years before. I then mvestigated the 

 subject, and found the trees were infested with myriads of the larvas of some 

 one of the nocturnal Lepidoptera. These devoured the upper and under epidermis 

 of the leaves, thus asphyxiating the tree. Some 75 per cent, of that forest died that 

 year, and subsequently almost all the surviving trees died also. Since then I have 

 observed the same larvae at work, some of which,when kept until they had passed through 

 their several metamorphoses to the perfected insect, were pronounced by Professor 

 M'Coy to be examples of Umbra lugens. Whether this insect has in all cases been 

 the agent in destroying the red-gums I cannot affirm. Probably not wholly, but I am 

 satisfied that the greater part of the Red-gum trees which have died in Gippsland 

 from obscure causes have been killed by its agency. 



The inference may be drawn from the above observations of forests having been 

 killed by infesting insects, that each species of Eucalypt, or at any rate each group 

 of allied species, will have attached to it some particular insect which preys upon it 

 rather than upon any other Eucalypt. 



