22 EUCAL YPTUS. 



an extraordinary reported capacity of varying according to 

 the soil and climate which they occupy. Some species 

 have persistent bark in one geological formation and shed 

 their bark in another. Some have green leaves, horizon- 

 tal and broad near the coast and sickle shaped gray ones 

 hanging vertical in the interior. The same species often 

 vary, even in the color of their flowers. A number vary 

 in the essential oils and odor of their foliage, and all are 

 affected in the character and quality of their timber by 

 situation and climate. The forest trees indigenous to Cali- 

 fornia have also often a strong tendency to vary, and 

 again, like some Australian species, many of our trees are 

 indigenous to very narrow limits. The Brewer, or beauti- 

 ful weeping spruce, the Foxtail Balfour pine, the Torrey 

 pine, the Lawson and Monterey Cypress, are amongst 

 those so confined. One of our pines, the Monterey, P. 

 insignis, the fastest growing pine in the world, and more 

 largely planted in Australia than any foreign tree, has a 

 very restricted natural range about Monterey. We have in 

 this pine some counterpart to the blue gums. 



First That it renders soil, air and water aseptic. 



Second That it is the most adaptable of our coniferous 



trees. 



i 



Third That it is of so confined a natural habitat. 



Fourth That other trees about it of very wide range 

 like the Douglas spruce do not succeed in our plantations 

 anything like so well. 



So the blue gum of naturally restricted range succeeds 

 better in plantations than very widely distributed Eucalyp- 

 tus like, for instance, Eucalyptus rostrata, found in every 

 division of Australia proper and absent only in Tasmania 



The Monterey pine is a better tree than the blue gum. 



