EUCALYPTUS CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 605 



80 to speak, by M. Ramel, in 1S54. Being then at Melbourne, Australia, his attention 

 was attracted by the extraordinary vigor of growth of a young plant in the botanical 

 garden of that city, and its graceful form and beautiful foliage. He brought its seed 

 to Paris, and had no difficulty in making them grow vigorously in summer, but they 

 were killed down by frost in winter. Although under glass they grew with the same 

 vigor, and soon reached the utmost limit of their space, so as to bend over under the 

 roof. Some plants, sown in 1861, when placed in the open air, in 1872, grew so rapidly 

 that the idea was suggested of trying them in Algeria and the south of France. It 

 was introduced in Corsica, in 1865, and a report made in March, 1870, states as the re- 

 sult of observation that they would prosper around the borders of the ieland, and to 

 an elevation of about 400 feet above sea-level. Its power of absorption of moisture 

 and its emanations tending to purify the atmosphere were commended, and its growth 

 was rapid ; trees but sis years old measuring 59 inches at 20 inches above the earth. i 



In' the winter of 1870-'71, a large number of these trees, which had flourished ten 

 years, were killed down by frost in the basin of the Rhone. Near Cannes a few resisted 

 the cold. At Madrid, wood of three or four years' growth withstood the trost, and 

 put forth shoots vigorously .^ 



A report from Nice, July, 1871, was not favorable. The tree was found to require a 

 deep, fertile,and well-irrigated soil, without which it would perish in seasons of drought. 

 A temperature of 40° to 43° Fahrenheit would seriously aflect it, and it could not with- 

 stand the violent winds which blow in the winter mouths along the northern shore of 

 the Mediterranean. The writer of this account expresses the opinion that it could not 

 be raised in France to advantage, or at least not in thickets, with the design of ex- 

 stracting its essential oils.^ 



It was first introduced into Algeria in 1854, in the garden of Hamma, near Algiers, 

 under the direction M. Hardy, and a writer in 1867 estimates that a hundred thousand 

 plants had been distributed in different provinces, and its success equalled the highest 

 expectations that had beeu formed concerning it."* M. Plauchon, in speaking of its culti- 

 vation in that country (1874), says : " In Algeria it is moet favorably naturalized. It 

 triumphantly borders'the railways, of which it has seen the birth and marked the date. 

 The garden inclosure can no longer retain it. It is planted by hundreds of thousands, 

 in groves, in avenues, in groups, in isolated places, in every section of the three prov- 

 inces, and the foreigner who does not know the exotic origin of the Eucalyptus, would 

 suppose it to be an indigenous tree." 



This tree has been introduced in India, the Cape of Good Hope, Ar- 

 gentine Eepublic, Chili, Central America, California, and various West 

 India Islands. The genus Eucalyptus embraces an immense number of 

 species, about 140 being described by Bentham and Von Miiller in their 

 Flora AustraUensis. They differ greatly in size, habit of growth, and 

 qualities, and several of them possess valuable medicinal properties. 

 The E. globulus grows in its native country to an immense size, rivaling 

 the giant Seqiioias of California.'^ The E. amygdalina has been seen 480 

 teet high.^ 



to give them more lightness, strengthening them by iron bands." The specific name 

 was suggested by the fruit, which resembles an urn rather than a button. The form 

 is that of a reversed cone, raising four prominent sides, slightly widened at the edge 

 and hollowed in the center by four cells, which open by large radiating shoulders, 

 separated by as many triangular tongues. Before flowering, this inferior part of the 

 calyx, which becomes the fruit, bears a thick, wrinkled, conoidic cap, which son?e 

 botanists believe to be the superior part of the calyx ; others a corolla with consoli- 

 dated stamens. It is from this covering that the plant receives the \if\,vae> oi Eucalyptus, 

 from two Greek words signifying " 1 conceal well," the cap for a longtime concealing 

 the stamens. — Planchoii's Eucalyptus globulus, p. 9. Translated and published by the 

 Department of Agriculture (1875). 



1 Bulletin de la Soc. d' AccUmatation [2], is, 445. 



^Ib. [2], viii, 148, 384. 



3i&. [2], viii, 387 ; see also ib. [21, ii, 672. 



* Revue des Eaiix et Forcts, vi, 16. 



6 In an expedition into the interior of the Australian continent by Walter Hill, a 



f government botanist, the Eucalyptus was found at an elevation of 4,000 feet above sea- 

 evel, 159 feet in circumference at 3 feet from the ground, and 80 feet in girth at 56 feet. 

 Shipbuilders procure timber in single pieces for keels 120 feet long, and for planking 

 of vessels it is considered superior to American rock elm. 



A bibliography of pamphlets and articles upon the Eucalyptus is given in the Bulle- 

 iin Mcnsuel de la Soc. d'Acclimatation for Jannary, 1877 (od ser., iv, p. 59-63), and a list 

 of species in the same journal for April, 1876. A large number of American publica- 

 tions upon this subject are omitted in the list cited. 



^ Trausactions and Froceedings of the Royal Soc. of Victoria, Part I, vol. viii, p. 9, 



