PART II. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GENUS EUCALYPTUS. 



GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



The genus Eucalyptus includes about 150 species. Most of them 

 are trees of large size; some of them among the largest in the world. 

 They range, however, from immense trees towering high on plains 

 and hillsides down to small shrubs that cover desert or alpine regions. 



They grow in a great variety of soils and climates, the various native 

 environments having thus resulted in the development of species that 

 are quite different from one another. In their native home the}^ grow 

 both scattered and in forests. 



The Eucalypts are all evergreens, a fact that should be taken into 

 consideration when planting them. 



Many of the species are vigorous growers, a few being especially 

 noted for the great rapidity of their growth. The Blue Gum {Euca- 

 lyptus (jlohulus) is one of the fastest growing of the genus. On the 

 ranch of Hon. Ellwood Cooper, near Santa Barbara, Cal., trees of this 

 species 25 j^ears old are as large as oaks whose rings show them to be 

 200 to 300 years old. As to their growth in France, Prof. Charles 

 Naudin, in his memoir on Eucalyptus, published in 1891, says: 



In a score of years they (the Blue Gums) attain at least the volume and the height 

 of an oak a century old. Some others, though not growing as rapidly, are moreover 

 remarkable for the short time in which they may be used for carpentry, for joinery, 

 for carriage making, for agricultural implements, for railroad sleepers, and for tele- 

 jj^raph poles. 



It is this rapiditv of growth, enabling them to reach the stature of 

 trees in a few \-ears, that has been the principal cause of the popularity 

 of the Eucalypts where they have been introduced. 



Most species if pruned, or if cut off at the ground, sprout freely, 

 sending up shoots that usually make a very vigorous growth. This 

 makes it possible to cut the trees for fuel, for timber, or for other 

 purposes, and in a comparatively short time to again have a forest 

 containing as much timber as before the trees were cut. A Blue Gum 

 {EucalypUis globuluH) 8 to 10 years old, if cut to the ground, will send 



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FOREST RESOURCFS 

 LIBRARY 



