558 XXVIII. MYRTACEAE 



Much experimental work has been carried out in the past, and continues 

 to be carried out, in the cultivation of eucalyptus in India, but in spite of this 

 the records of results are in most cases disappointing, and are often unreliable. 

 Fruitful sources of error are the wrong naming of seeds, the inadvertent mixing 

 of seeds of different species, the interchanging of labels of plants in different 

 stages, as well as errors and omissions in maintaining the records. Again, it 

 frequently happens that a species grows well for a few years and then fails ; 

 it is favourably reported on for some years and the record then ceases, though 

 the plant has by this time acquired an undeserved reputation, and is wrongly 

 recorded as a success. It is therefore of little use judging of the suitability of 

 a species for a given locality until it has reached reasonable dimensions and 

 shown its adaptability to its new environment. Mistakes in identification are 

 very common, and have been the cause of a good deal of confusion in the past. 

 For the correct identification of the eucalypts, botanical specimens should be 

 as complete as possible, and should ordinarily include primordial as well as 

 adult leaves, flowers, fruits, and bark : as these are not all obtainable at the 

 same time, great care is necessary to ensure that the specimens are all collected 

 from the same tree. 



Numerous failures in the past have been due to the fact that trees from 

 the temperate regions of Australasia have been repeatedly tried in the hotter 

 parts of India, while those from the tropical and other warm regions of that 

 continent have been tried at cool elevations in the hills. Generally speaking 

 it may be laid down that for low elevations in India, if any species is to have 

 a reasonable chance of succeeding it must be obtained from the tropical and 

 warm parts of Queensland and adjacent northern regions, where also are 

 found such well-known Indian trees as Bombax malabaricum, Eugenia Jamho- 

 lana, Barringtonia racemosa, Alstonia scholaris, Mallotus philippi7iensis , Trema 

 orientalis, Ficus glomerata, and Casuarina equisetifolia. On the other hand^ 

 species from Tasmania and the southern parts of Australia only are likely to 

 be successful at the higher elevations in India. To quote one example : the 

 blue gum {E. Globulus), a tree of Tasmania and the south-eastern parts of 

 Australia, has been tried time and again at low elevations in India, but has 

 always failed signally, whereas at the higher elevations in the Nilgiris it has been 

 a remarkable success. 



The results attained hitherto in different parts of India, so far as records 

 are available, are of some interest, and may prove to be useful as a guide 

 towards the selection of species for further experiment. 



1. The Nilgiris. The introduction of eucal3^pts in 1843, and the formation 

 of plantations from 1856 onwards, have already been alluded to. In 1914 

 the total area of Government eucalyptus plantations, either pm:e or mixed 

 with acacia, amounted to 1,089 acres, in addition to which there are numerous 

 privately owned plantations. Fuel from these is supplied at extremely cheap 

 rates. The altitude of the plantations varies from 5,000 to 8,300 ft. The 

 principal rock is a fine-grained gneiss decomposing into a red clay : there is 

 a marked absence of lime in the soil. 



The climate of the Nilgiris is cool, equable, and moist, with a well-dis- 

 tributed rainfall of about 50 to 80 in. The winter is on the whole mild, with 

 only occasional frosts of more than slight intensity, and these are of short 



