EUCALYPTUS GLOBULUS. 



Trottier, Note sur I'Eucalyptus. 



Turrel, Dr. Notes sur I'acclimatatiou de quelques vegetaux, 1866. 



Ward, General Sir E. M. Timber of New South Wales, its elasticity and strength, 1861. 

 WooUs, Rev. Dr. W. A Contribution to the Flora of Australia ; the genus Eucalyptus, 1867. 

 Lectures on the Vegetable Kingdom, 1879. 



The following are the results of experiments on Blue Gum wood as regards its yield of 

 potash : — One ton of green timber from the trunk stripped of the bark yielded 1 lb. 5 oz. of pure 

 potash or 2 lbs. 3 oz. of soluble salts, which might be regarded as equal to pearlash ; one ton 

 of dry trunkwood yielded 2 lbs. 11 oz. of pure potash or 4 lbs. 8 oz. soluble salts ; one ton of 

 branches with leaves as lopped off the tree yielded 4 lbs. 12 oz. of pure potash or 8 lbs. 5 oz. of 

 soluble salts. Difference of soil, in which the tree grows, will alter to some extent these propor- 

 tions. 



In the notes on E. megacarpa will be seen, how very different Eucalyptus-seeds of various 

 species turn out in comparative size, and accordingly their weight as a merchandise is also much 

 diversified ; thus one ounce of sifted seeds of E. globulus contains about 10,000 fertile grains. 

 Seeds of this tree kept their vitality at least four years, according to our tests, so far instituted, 

 but perhaps they will keep much longer ; the more minute seed-grains of E. amygdalina germi- 

 nated here still after six years, whereas the comparatively large seeds of E. miniata proved in our 

 experiments to have retained their power of germination fully thirteen years. 



For mitigating the heat of arid tree-less regions, subject to high summer temperature, E. 

 globulus plays a most important part also. But the culture of the tree should be millionfold, 

 as effected already by wise statesmanship and enlightened private enterprise in Algeria, Upper 

 India and some of the western states of the North American Union. The rearing of forests of 

 our Blue Gum-tree can be accomplished more cheaply and more easily than that of almost any other 

 tree, while the return is twice or three times earlier than that of the most productive Pine- or Oak- 

 forests ; and this raising of Eucalyistus-forests can be extended to regions, in which most Pines 

 and all Oaks would cope in vain with an almost rainless clime, though Eucalyptus-culture can 

 never advance to cold zones. In a few months seedlings can be raised of sufficient strength, to 

 be set out at the beginning of the cool season, and these will live already through the next 

 summer without bestowal of any particular care. Sterile land, unless it be absolute sand, will 

 soon be transformed into a verdant and salubrious grove, more particularly so if the substrata 

 do not consist of impenetrable layers or outcrops of rocks. While quietly the forest advances, 

 almost witliout expenditure and care, its wood-treasures increase from year to year without taxing 

 the patience of generations, and within less than half the lifetime of man, timber of conspicuous 

 dimensions can be removed, after fuel had been provided annually long before, while the unpropi- 

 tious original surface-soil will have been converted into a stratum of fertility for agricultural or 

 pastoral returns from successive storage of mineral aliments brought by the roots of tlie trees 

 from far beneath, and accumulating through the decay of the dropping foliage. Colonel Playfliir, 

 British Consul-General in Algeria, informs me that there on extensive arable lauds of his estate, 

 where scarcely tlie seed-grain of wheat could be reaped in years of drought, the very young 

 Eucalypt suffered in no way. It is not too much to assert, that among rather more than one 

 thousand different species of trees, indigenous in Australia, E. globulus takes the first ]iosition 

 in importance, aud among its own kinds it is the Prince of Eucalypts. 



