EUCALYPTUS TREES. 105 



bunya tree and native nut-tree is secured against be- 

 ing felled. The very local and circumscribed Kauri 

 forests, known only in two limited spots, would also 

 need some protection.] To the facilities of exporting 

 the huge, square Todea Ferns — a commerce initiated 

 by myself — I alluded on a former occasion. 



Having dwelt on some of the technologic or mer- 

 cantile products obtainable from the native forests — 

 few, it is true— I now pass on to some brief observa- 

 tions in reference to enriching the resources of our 

 woods. 



Among new industries which, by introduction from 

 abroad, are likely to be pursued in sylvan localities, 

 that of the cultivation of the Tea shrub of China and 

 Assam stands, perhaps, foremost. It is a singular fact 

 that even in the genial clime of Southern Europe, and 

 under advantages of inexpensive labor, the important 

 and lucrative branch of Tea-culture has received as yet 

 no attention whatever. This is probably owing to the 

 circumstance that hitherto the laborious manual pro- 

 cess of curling the fresh Tea-leaves under moderate 

 heat has never yet been superseded by adopting for 

 the purpose rollers worked and heated by steam, 

 though such contrivance was suggested here by me 

 many years ago. 



The tea thus obtained could always be brought to 

 its best aroma by such a mode of exact control over 

 the degree and duration of the heat. Tea-culture in 

 the ranges would show us which soil, or which geo- 

 logic formation, produced here the best leaves. The 

 yield of the latter would, in the equable air of the hu- 

 mid air of the forest-glens, be far more copious than 



