7 / EUCAL YPTUS. 



the extraordinary vigor, size, and somewhat changed appear- 

 ance of this tree in its favorite moist mountain gorges. 



It seems to a layman, or, as we might say with col- 

 loquial aptness, to a man up a tree, as though much of 

 the re-naming and resulting confusion in botany might be 

 obviated. 



There should be a statute of limitations on* names, so 

 that those used and accepted for a certain time should re- 

 main fixed at least as to honorary specific designations. 



There should also be some regard to decency and the 

 canons of good taste. 



For a long time we had a beautiful American magnolia, 

 labelled very satisfactorily, "Magnolia grandiflora." It 

 seems that some person delving in obscure and musty 

 records found a prior name, or one claimed to be so, and 

 now we suffer under the affliction of Magnolia foetida. This 

 in plain English is "stinking" magnolia. This ill-smelling 

 name I, for one, will never accept. 



Several trees have " Pseudo " set in their names, as 

 Pseudo-tsuga taxifolii, our old Abies Douglasi, and Rob- 

 in ia Pseud-acacia and acer Pseudo-platanus. 



It has always ruffled my temper to see accomplished 

 naturalists so little in touch, as shown in such names, with 

 the grand mission of nature. To accuse nature of falsify- 

 ing in such matter as oui Oregon pine, the greatest of ail 

 timber trees, is the sign manual of a congenital defect in 

 the rut-bound bis-baptismal sponsor. 



Records on the durability of Eucalyptus diversicolor 

 timber vary a great deal, and are perhaps due to the dif- 

 ferent conditions of soil and humidity where the trees grew 

 from which the timber was taken. Mr. Walter Gill, the 

 accomplished conservator of forests of South Australia, calls 



