338 



UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT STATION. 



EUCALYPTS AND ACACIAS. 



The tests of Eucalypts and Acacias at Chico substation have now 

 been continued for several years, and supplemented by observations on 

 trees in General Bidwell's collection and elsewhere. The district is 

 evidently unsuited to a wide range of species in these two important 

 classes of trees. 



Eucalypts (old trees). The Third State Forestry Report (for 1889-90) 

 states that Eucalyptus viminalis was the most successful species tested; 

 E. obliqua grew but poorly; E. rostrata did not thrive as well as E. 

 viminalis. Many species were planted, possibly most of those tried at 

 Santa Monica, but no records were kept. At the present time, large 

 trees are on the Chico substation, of the following varieties: viminalis, 

 rostrata, globulus, obliqua, eugenoides. 



E. viminalis grows very fast here, and forms a noble tree, perfectly 

 hardy, but not always able to sustain itself against the winds. Trees 



PLATE 43. GROUP OP EUCALYPTUS TREES (E. viminalis). 



80 feet in height and 12 inches in diameter, planted since 1888, are on 

 the station grounds. Trees thirty years old are on Rancho Chico. 



A very curious and interesting group of E. viminalis stands on the 

 station grounds. The trees were evidently heeled-in, in a short trench, 

 when taken from a nursery, and grew there. At the present time, from 

 a small base 30 feet long and 3 feet wide, spring twenty-two large and 

 some thirty small trees. The twenty-two largest are from 50 to 75 feet 

 high, and from 12 to 35 inches in circumference of trunks. The thirty 

 small trees have merely existed for years past. The trunks touch at 

 the base (90 square feet), and widening in search of light and air, fill, 

 at the height of fifty feet, a quadrilateral of about 1,000 square feet. 

 This remarkable illustration of extremely compact tree growth on good 

 soil is shown in the accompanying reproduction from a photograph 

 (plate 43). 



