34 EUCALYPTUS. 



frost; that the red gum (Eucalyptus rostra ta) stands more 

 frost than the blue gum; that the manna gum (Eucalyptus 

 Viminalis) stands both frost and drought better than the 

 blue gum. I feel a great regret that I cannot give definite 

 figures on temperature resisted by the different species. 

 Frosty places, at least in Southern California, hate to 

 confess the whole truth, or, as they say, the exceptional 

 facts about frost. From my own plantings some exper- 

 iences will be occasionally given. These plantings were 

 made at Santa Monica on the Pacific Ocean, and at Kin- 

 neloa ranch on the foot-hills of the Sierra Madre, in the 

 San Gabriel Valley. The lowest temperature recorded at 

 the ranch house, with a self-registering thermometer, has 

 been 32, and this but twice in 15 years. At Santa 

 Monica, Mr. Hugh Casey generally has a tomato vine 

 running to the roof of his house and fruiting all winter, 

 so there also it is very mild. 



The lowest temperature recorded at the Forestry station, 

 Santa Monica, was 30 Fahrenheit. The extraordinary dif- 

 ferences of degrees of frost within short distances, in Cali- 

 fornia, makes it essential to look carefully into temperature 

 records as evidences of what plants will stand in the way 

 of cold. The examination is necessary, not in doubt about 

 the record, but in discovering its applicability to the plan- 

 tations under consideration. The thermometer at my ranch 

 is on the inside of an outer pillar, on the south side of the 

 piazza, about ten feet from the ground. On the terrace in 

 front and close to the piazza grows a banana that has 

 never been cut back, but the ends of the top leaves have 

 been frost burned several times. Close below on a bank 

 is a scarlet flowered passion vine ; part of it grows to the 

 top of a palm tree. On the bank, the vine leaves have 



