574 XXVIIT. MYRTACEAE 



E. rostrata in this respect : swampy ground, however, is not favourable to 

 good growth. It is averse to calcareous and to saline soils. The seedlings 

 are somewhat sensitive to frost and drought, and even in the Nilgiris, where 

 the winter cold is by no means intense, they require to be protected from 

 frost for the first year after planting out. The adult trees also do not stand 

 severe frost or drought. 



The blue gum has been tried from time to time in all kinds of localities 

 throughout India, and from the experience gained it may be laid down that 

 it is totally unsuitable for cultivation on the plains, or indeed at any elevation 

 much below 4,000 ft. It has even been tried on coast sand in Madras, but 

 needless to say the attempt was a complete failure. It has been planted in 

 various parts of the Himalaya and has succeeded tolerably well in several 

 places, particularly where the climate is not too severe, but it is very liable 

 to breakage by snow, for which reason it is unsuitable for cultivation at 

 altitudes where the snowfall is at all heavy. Prior to the abnormal frost of 

 1905 it was one of the commonest species grown at Abbottabad (4,000 ft.), 

 but it was severely injured in the great frost, and many trees which had been 

 killed outright were felled ; there are now far fewer specimens there, and 

 those which existed prior to 1905 are all injured. Experiments within recent 

 years have shown that it grows well in the Simla hills at 4,000-7,000 ft. 

 elevation. In Burma it has proved a failure at Maymyo (3,500 ft.) but has 

 succeeded in the hills of the Ruby Mines district. It grows well at Shillong 

 in Assam. It is in the Nilgiris, however, that this tree grows to the greatest 

 perfection ; it has been extensively planted at elevations varying from 5,000 

 to 8,300 ft., and is of paramount importance as a fuel-producing species. The 

 climate of the Nilgiris has been described on pp. 558-9 : being cool, equable, 

 and moist it is an ideal one for the growth of the blue gum, while the red 

 clayey soil overlying gneissic rock, and remarkably free from lime, appears to 

 be specially favourable to the growth of the tree. The Nilgiri plateau is hilly 

 to undulating, and consists largely of open grassy downs with sholas, or patches 

 of dense evergreen "forest of rather small-sized trees, occupying the more 

 fertile hollows and ravines. Blue gum plantations have been formed both 

 on grass-land and on shola-land, and the latter being more fertile the growth 

 on this type of land is superior to that on the grass-land. 



The blue gum plantations of the Nilgiris are worked mainly as simple 

 coppice, the rotation adopted for some time past being ten years, but under 

 the latest revised working plan ^ it has been raised to fifteen years, this 

 rotation being likely to furnish a higher yield. Some of the plantations in 

 the less accessible situations have remained as high forest, and these give 

 some idea of the large dimensions attained by this tree. Coppice- with- 

 standards was tried at one time, but the standards were found to interfere 

 with the development of the coppice, and the system was therefore abandoned : 

 some of the coppice-with-standards coupes have been allowed to grow up into 

 high forest. The coppicing power of the tree is remarkable, numerous shoots 

 being sent up both from the cambium round the top of the stool and from 

 the periphery of the stool lower down, but chiefly from the latter ; a callus 

 forms over the top of the stool and may cover it completely in a few years. 

 ^ Working Plan for the Nilgiri Plantations, S. Cox, 191 .3. 



