EUCALYPTUS. 27 



several pines and oaks. Both the Quercus Douglass! and 

 Q. Engelmanii are bluish and often quite blue. Nearly 

 all our scrub oaks are blueish gray. In pines, P. Sabini- 

 ana is our ugly blue-grey foothill pine, P. Torreyana and 

 P. Parryana blueish grey, and there are several others. 

 The pines in many cases have the blue gum characteristic 

 of having the seedlings bluer than the mature tree. 



The blue-grey foliage, so frequent in the Eucalypti, is 

 not accompanied by blue flowers. The genus Eucalyptus 

 has red, white and yellow, but no blue flowers, the same 

 range of color, in fact, as the rose. The Eucalyptus 

 flowers, as a rule, are handsome and decorative, but diffi- 

 cult to handle as cut flowers. 



The three colors, red, blue and yellow, in their purity, 

 have an antipathy to union in one genus of plants. Any 

 two ma>' be found together in kinds of flowers, but the 

 three in full character are not. Exceptions to this are 

 claimed, as in the Hyacinth. With this beautiful flower 

 the reds and blues are distinct enough, but the claimed 

 yellow is usually a dirty dull color, verging to red. 

 Whether a few exceptions exist or not, to the rule, the 

 general refusal of all these three colors to occur in the 

 flowers of any one genus of plants, is worthy of more at- 

 tention and investigation than it has received. With this 

 rule in mind, the blue foliage of the Eucalyptus without 

 the blue flowers, becomes a matter of much more interest. 



One of the advantages of the blue gum is the small size 

 of the seeds, their reliable fertility and excellent keeping 

 powers. In an ounce of well sifted blue gum seeds there 

 will be 10,000 fertile grains. The sizes of the seeds of the 

 noted species of the Eucalyptus are as follows : 



