144 EUCALYPTUS. 



The Spanish prejudice or superstition in favor of the 

 tree has its counterpart in the regrettable crusade against 

 the Pride of India, a tree that once shaded nearly all of 

 Charleston's streets in South Carolina. 



Some one started the idea during an epidemic of yellow 

 fever that these trees were the breeders of infectious dis- 

 eases and especially of yellow fever. The idea spread like 

 the infection itself and swept the beautiful shade trees be- 

 fore it. 



As the Pride of In Ha had absolutely nothing to do with 

 producing yellow fever in Charleston so it may be that the 

 Eucalyptus has really done nothing against malaria. 



INSTANCES OF IMPROVED HEALTH ATTRIBUTED TO 

 EUCALYPTUS PLANTING. 



M. Regulus Carlotti, the distinguished Corsican forester, 

 has collected in his monograph entitled " Assainessement 

 des Regions Chaudes Insalubres " a large number of instan- 

 ces of increased salubrity attributed to the planting of Euca- 

 lyptus. Amongst these he cites Chiavari on the east coast 

 of Corsica. This is a penal station situated on the edge of 

 the East Corsican plain that is so unhealthy that it is in 

 summer practically uninhabitable. At Chiavari in 1855 (the 

 date I believe of its establishment) they lost 65 of each 

 100 prisoners by death. This frightful mortality is suffi- 

 cient proof of its sanitary condition. The works undertaken 

 at this place comprised intensive culture, drainage works 

 and the planting of Eucalyptus globulus. M. Carlotti re- 

 ports the death rate at present to be normal. Drainage 



