EUCALYPTUS TREES. 147 
No part of Australia has the marked peculiarities 
of its vegetation so strongly expressed, and no part 
of this great country produces so rich an assemblage 
of species within a limited area as the remotest 
south-western portion of the continent, Indeed, the 
southern extremity of Africa is the only part of the 
globe in which an equally varied display of vegetable 
forms is found within equally narrow precincts, and 
endowed also with an equal richness of endemic gen- 
era. It is beyond the scope of this brief treatise to 
enter fully into a detailed exposition of the constitu- 
ents of the south-western flora. It may mainly suffice 
to view such of the vegetable products as are drawn 
already into industrial use, or are likely to be of avail 
for the purpose. Foremost in this respect stands, 
perhaps, the Mahogany-Eucalypt (Eucalyptus margi- 
nata). The timber of this tree exhibits the won- 
derful quality of being absolutely impervious to the 
inroads of the limnoria, the teredo, and chelura—those 
minute marine creatures so destructive to wharves, 
jetties, and any work of naval architecture exposed 
to the water of the sea; it equally resists the attacks 
of termites. In these properties the Red Gum-tree 
of our own country largely shares. The Mahogany- 
Eucalypt has, in the Botanic Gardens of this city, 
been brought for the first time largely under cultiva- 
tion, and as, clearly, the natural supply of this impor- 
tant timber will, sooner or later, proye inadequate to 
the demanded requirements, it must be regarded as 
a wise measure of the goyernments of France and 
Ttaly now to establish this tree on the Mediterranean 
shores —a measure for which still greater facilities 
are here locally offered, 
