DESTROYING AND REPELLING MOSQUITOES 103 



Burlingame section all of the numerous winding avenues 

 are lined with eucalyptus ; there are eucalyptus along the 

 highways, and there are groves of eucalyptus ; yet, where 

 these trees are most abundant it might be said that the 

 mosquitoes are most numerous. . . . During the sum- 

 mer of 1904 we captured in five minutes' sweeping, immedi- 

 ately under eucalyptus trees, a pint cup of mosquitoes." 

 Coyote Point, Cal., is covered with these trees, yet the 

 construction of a hotel there was abandoned because of 

 the mosquitoes. Other observers, who have lived where 

 the eucalyptus grows arid have had an opportunity of 

 actually observing its relation to mosquitoes, declare 

 that it does not repel these insects. All the authentic 

 evidence we have on the subject proves that the eucalyp- 

 tus tree is of no avail in repelling mosquitoes. 



The castor-oil plant has also been heralded as repugnant 

 to mosquitoes. Howard says this idea was based largely 

 upon the report of Capt. E. H. Plumacher, United States 

 Consul at Maracaibo, Venezuela. He reported that his 

 house in Venezuela, surrounded by plantain and banana 

 trees, had been greatly troubled by mosquitoes. But 

 following the advice of neighbors he planted the seeds of 

 the castor-oil plant among the trees, and the mosquitoes 

 disappeared with the development of the plants. Some 

 of these Venezuelan seeds were planted in New Jersey by 

 Brakeley, but the plants proved of no efficacy in repelling 

 the Jersey mosquitoes. J. B. Smith, also of New Jersey, 

 says, "I put out several groups of them (castor bean 

 plants) in 1902 in my front lawn and next to the porch. 

 They were faithfully tested ; but under the very plants 

 themselves the mosquitoes were a little worse than any- 

 where else." 



