STRANGE PLANTS AND THEIR WAYS. 49 



composed of this and similar trees, to which the general 

 name of eucalypts has been applied. About one hundred 

 and fifty varieties of these trees have been discovered and 

 described. Most of them are evergreen, but the leaves 

 vary greatly in form in the different varieties, some being 

 grass-shaped, long, and narrow, while others are nearly as 

 broad as long. The leaf of the E. globulus is of a bluish 

 green, and hence it is popularly called the bluegum-tree. 

 They have great tenacity of life, and grow to an immense 

 size. The largest tree that is known is one in the province 

 of Victoria, which measures four hundred and eighty feet 

 in height, which is considerably higher than the tallest of 

 the secjuoias of California. 



3. These trees all belong to the great order of myrtle- 

 blooms, and are cousins to the pomegranate, pimento, and 

 clove. They yield an abundance of a highly aromatic gum, 

 which gives to them the universal common name of gum- 

 tree. This gum, and the oils and resins obtained by distill- 

 ing the bark and wood, have valuable medicinal proper- 

 ties. Diffused in the sick-room, they purify the air and 

 germinate ozone. 



4. The eucalypts are among the most rapid of grow- 

 ers. Bluegums have been known to reach the height of 

 sixty-five feet, with a trunk more than three feet and a 

 half in circumference, in seven years. But, with all this 

 rapidity of growth, the young eucalypt seems doggedly re- 

 solved, for some years at least, to resemble its parent in 

 no particular save in the aromatic odor of its leaves. The 

 stem of the young tree is four-sided ; the leaves have no 

 appreciable petiole, half inclose the stalk, and are placed 

 opposite each other. They are also set at right angles 

 with the pairs above and below. The leaves are wide 

 and heart-shaped, and the two sides are essentially differ- 

 ent, the upper being exposed to the sun, and the lower 

 kept in the shade and containing the breathing organs. 



