THE EUCALYPTS OF filPPSLAND. 113 



If this is SO, we ought to fiud some one tree selected tor clestrnction out of a 

 number of species, and it is the case with the Eed-gum, for it fahs a victim to Umbra 

 lugens, whilst its neighbours the White-gum (E. viminalis), tlie Swamp-gum (E. 

 gunnii), and the Yellow-box (E. melliodora) are untouched and in vigorous 

 health.* 



I feel little doubt that this will explain why it is that in many parts of the 

 country, at all elevations above sea level, certain tracts of dead forest are to be found. 

 Twenty-five years ago I noticed that during the course of three years all the AVhite- 

 gums (E. viminalis) in part of the Omeo district died, whilst E. pauciflora and E. 

 stellulata remained alive. 



I have said that in my opinion the increased growth of the Eucalyptus forests 

 since the first settlement of Gippsland has been due to the checking of bush fires 

 year by year, and to the increase thereby of the chance of survival of the seedling 

 Eucalypts, and to the same cause we may assign the increase of the leaf-eating insects 

 which seem in places to threaten the very existence of the Eed-gum. 



Bush fires, which swept the country more or less annually, kept down the 

 enormous multiplication of insect life, destroying myriads of grasshoppers and 

 caterpillars, which now devastate parts of the Gippsland district, spoiling the oat 

 crops, and eating the grass down to the ground. 



The ravages of the larvae of Lepidoptera are at present greatly aided by the 

 sickly state in which many of the Red-gum forests in Gippsland now are. The 

 long-continued use of the country for pasturage, and the trampling of the surface of 

 the ground by stock, has greatly hardened the soil, so that rain which formerly, in 

 what I may call the " normal state " as regards Eucalypts, soaked in, now runs off. 

 In the course of successive droughty seasons the soil of such places becomes 

 thoroughly dry and hard, so that the Red-gum is deprived of much moisture which 

 it otherwise would have in reserve. The trees are wanting in vigour, and thus 

 unable to withstand the attacks of insect pests. 



The effects produced by man's interference with the balance of nature, by settling 

 new countries, is not only of great scientific interest, but is also of importance in 

 showing us how and why it is that the labours of the graziers and farmers are being- 

 carried on year by year under the increasing attacks of insect pests. 



The subject is a tempting one, but to pursue it further would be foreign to the 

 subject of these Notes, which is the " Eucalypts of Gippsland.'' 



* I have observed, however, in some localities E. melliodora and E. piperita have been slightly attacked by 

 Urubra lugens. 



