138 PEACH. EUCALYP'TUS. 



the species commu'nis of the genus Myr'tus; and is 

 a native of Asia, Africa, and the southern parts of 

 Europe. Lord Anson mentions, in his Voyage 

 round the World, that the largest trees for timber 

 on the island of Juan Fernandez, and from which 

 he obtained beams of forty feet in length, were of 

 this genus. 



The Peach-tree, Amyg'dalus Per'sica, of which 

 there are two varieties, the Peach with downy 

 fruit, and the Nectarine without down, is in the 

 first order of this class. Its native country is not 

 known, but it is supposed to have come originally 

 from Persia. Another species the Almond-tree, 

 Amyg'dalus commu'nis, is a native of Barbary. 



In the same order of this class are the Pomegra- 

 nate-tree, Pu'nica Gran a'tum, which bears the fruit 

 supposed to have been the golden apple of the an- 

 cients ; and the Eucalyp'tus, a genus peculiar to 

 Australia, of which nearly a hundred species have 

 been already discovered, most of them trees of very 

 large dimensions. The Eucalyptus glob'ulus, and 

 another species peculiar to the south end of Van 

 Diemen's Island, frequently attain the height of a 

 hundred and fifty feet, and measure, near the base, 

 from twenty to five-and-forty feet round. 



