1 84 BLUE GUM TREES AND MALARIA. 



been registered at Sydney. These winds at times continue 

 to blow for a considerable period without intermission, 

 their direction being N.W. to S.E. ; a current of hot 

 air being evidently almost always passing in the 

 great altitudes of the higher atmosphere in that 

 direction, so that when this hot current is deflected 

 by any disturbing cause it sometimes descends, so as to 

 reach the earth, and hot winds are the consequent result. 

 These winds blew with fearful intensity for nearly a 

 month without ceasing, in the early part of 1896. 



The frequent occurrence of long droughts and hot 

 winds in Australia therefore, rendered some expedient 

 an evident desideratum, to protect vegetation from their 

 withering effects; and so we see Nature's simple and 

 effective counter-move is that the foliage of the trees 

 hangs so as to elude their influence, and instead of 

 presenting their full front to the sun in the usual way, 

 the leaves present themselves edgewise to the heat. 



In closing this brief notice of the eucalypti, their 

 remarkable febrifuge qualities ought by no means to 

 be forgotten for they are highly prized on account 

 of their supposed anti-malarial properties ; plantations of 

 the Eucalyptus Globulus or blue gum being believed 

 in some way to destroy malarial germs. The French 

 have introduced them largely, for this reason, into their 

 North African colonies, the anti-malarial power of the 

 eucalypti being with them almost an article of faith, 

 though it is not quite certain in what way the effect 

 is produced; but it is almost universally admitted that 

 localities which were formerly highly malarious, have 

 since the introduction of this gum tree become free 

 from malarial disease. We may mention the case of 

 Bona, on the N.E. coast, as one of the places where 



