3 2 EUCALYPTUS. 



work of this kind is apparent when we consider the 

 wide range of conditions in California. The blue gum, 

 while so generally suited to California, has a hard time in 

 some places and will not grow at all in others. In the 

 boulders or sands of the torrent beds of Southern Cali- 

 fornia the blue gum is often over-matched by the lightness 

 or dryness of the soil or lack of soil. Again, in exposed 

 places like the old alkali districts of such elevated plateaus 

 as that which we used to call the Mojave desert, the bine 

 gum is sometimes killed by the alkali and sometimes by 

 low temperature. The thermometer in these places some- 

 times falls to 2 above zero, and in one or two places even 

 zero has been recorded. 



It is doubtful whether any valuable Eucalyptus will do 

 well under such conditions, but it is certain that the blue 

 gum will not. The species to try would be Eucalyptus 

 rostrata, Eucalyptus viminalis, Eucalyptus urnigera, Euca- 

 lyptus robusta,- Eucalyptus amygdalina and Eucalyptus 

 Gunnii. No Eucalyptus has resisted the conditions at 

 Lancaster on the Mojave. Numbers of fruit trees do well 

 there and the Fremont poplar seems quite at home. At 

 points nearer the Sierra Madre in this ex-Mojave section, 

 now called Antelope Valley, various species ot Eucalyptus 

 have succeeded, but only locally, at or near Palmdale and 

 the Rock Creek mesa. Mr. John J. Jones, of Palmdale, 

 writes me that viminalis with him has stood more cold 

 without leaf-burning by five degrees than Eucalyptus glob- 

 ulus or Eucalyptus rostrata. His minimum in a protected 

 porch is 1 6 F. The West Australian Eucalyptus cornuta 

 was killed outright, while the red and blue gums live but 

 are very often frost burnt. 



Reports from Kew gardens, England, recently sent to 



