556 XXVIII. MYRTACEAE 



These coupes are subject to occasional severe frosts which damage the sal 

 coppice, and this accounts for the poor growth of the sal in some cases. 



3. Eugenia Jambos, Linn. Rose apple. Vern. Guldb jdman, Hind. 



A tree cultivated in many parts of India and Burma for its fruit, which 

 is rather insipid though sweet-scented. According to Brandis it is indigenous 

 in the Malay Archipelago and in Upper Burma (Shwebo district, at 1,000 ft. 

 on stream banks). It has run wild in many places. The handsome flowers, 

 with large yellowish white bunches of stamens, usually appear from February 

 to April. The fruits ripen from June to August, and drop at once ; the seeds 

 germinate soon after falling, and large quantities of seedlings may be fovmd 

 under and around the trees during the rainy season, as in the case of E. Jam- 

 hokina. These survive if the locality is sufficiently moist and shady, but if 

 exposed to the sun they die off rapidly. This habit coincides exactly with 

 that of the common form of E. Jambolana, and it is possible that on closer 

 study of the various species it may be foimd to be fairly general in the case of 

 those which grow in moist localities. 



2. EUCALYPTUS, L'Heritier. 



An Australasian genus consisting of about 140 species, most of which 

 are found in Australia and some in Tasmania, New Guinea, and other islands. 

 The eucalypts are evergreen trees, all more or less aromatic and containing 

 oil-glands in the leaves ; the oil distilled from the leaves of some species is 

 of value in medicine. The leaves of young trees, of young coppice-shoots, 

 and of shoots sent out after injury by fire or otherwise, are generally opposite, 

 sessile, and horizontal, and are often of a different shape from the normal 

 leaves of the adult tree ; the latter are usually alternate, petiolate, and 

 hang vertically. The flowers are white or red, and the flower-buds have the 

 calyx-tube covered with a lid or operculum which faUs off when the flowers 

 open. The fruit is a woody capsule, consisting of the hard calyx-tube and 

 containing numerous small seeds, a considerable proportion of which are usually 

 unfertile. 



The eucalypts contain several of the most important timber trees of the 

 Australian continent, where they form large tracts of forest, some growing 

 pure and others mixed. Some of them reach gigantic size, and are among the 

 largest trees in the world, specimens of the blue gum {E. Globulus, Labill.) 

 and peppermint gum {E. regnans, F. v. M., formerly included under E. amyg- 

 dalina, Labill.) having been stated to reach a height of over 400 ft. 



Introduction into foreign countries. The eucalypts appear first to 

 have attracted attention outside their natural home in the early part of the 

 nineteenth centmy, when seed began to be introduced into southern Em-ope, 

 and the trees, probably for the most part E. Globulus, began to be cultivated, 

 first for ornament or as curiosities, and later, when their rapid growth and 

 economic importance began to be realized, in plantations. Since then eucalypts 

 have been extensively planted in the Mediterranean region, in California, 

 Florida, Hawaii, and several other parts of the western hemisphere, in South 

 Africa, and in other sub-tropical and warm temperate regions throughout the 

 globe. 



Introduction into and cultivation in India. The introduction of 



