17 



EUCALYPTUS. 



There is a large number of Eucalyptus trees now ready at Hope 

 Gardens for distribution. They will be delivered free at any port or 

 railway station on receipt of Is. 6d. for packing. 



Notes on the several species are appended taken from Yon Mueller's 

 works, concerning the climate and their value as timber. 



Baron Sir F. Von Mueller, Government Botanist in Melbourne, writes 

 in October last, calling particular attention to the paragraphs, printed 

 below, on the hygienic value of Eucalyptus, in his well-known and 

 magnificent work Eucalyptographia. 



In his letter he says, " E. Globulus would of course only thrive on 

 your higher mountains, but the tropical lowland species such as E. dre- 

 panophylla, often distributed at my private expense in the interest of 

 the Eucalyptus cause, should have a good chance even in your flat coun- 

 try. All seeds sent during later years to you were a personal gift of 

 my own." Planchon, 30 years ago, in the Revue des Deux Mondes, called 

 him as regards E. Globulus the Prophet, and Mons. Ramel, the Apostle. 



An article appeared in the Bulletin for June 1894, on the influence 

 of Eucalyptus plantations on malarial districts, taken from Dr. Laveran's 

 work on Paludism. Credit has not been given by Dr. Laveran to Von 

 Mueller for all his labour in this cause, but his is a familiar name wherever 

 Eucalyptus is grown, and is well known here, not only as a generous con- 

 tributor of seeds, but as the source of the gift made to this Department 

 of " Eucalyptographia" by the Government of Victoria. 



" Mons. P. Ramel, Mons. A. Thozet, the writer and many others have 

 early drawn public attention to the importance of these trees for subdu- 

 ing malaria, after incidentally the febrifugal properties of the Eucalypts 

 had been discovered first by Spanish physicians in 1866 and been confirm- 

 ed soon subsequently by medical men in France and Italy, to whom the 

 opportunities for hygienic researches of this kind much more readily arose 

 than to us here, [i e. in Australia] in places where periodically or even con- 

 tinuously malarian fevers were raging, and where these, so soon as 

 Eucalyptus vegetation copiously arose (and this often through the instru- 

 mentality of the writer) the disease was suddenly or gradually checked, 

 mostly even without recurrence. The powerful disinfecting action of the 

 oily volatile emanations of the Eucalypts are mainly due to the evolution 

 of ozone and double oxyd of Hydrogen, as shown by experiments of Dr. 

 Andrews and Dr. G. Day. But irrespective of this, the power of 

 also this Eucalypt to absorb moisture from the ground is enormous, and 

 of vast hygienic significance, and stands in proportion to the intensity 

 of the aqueous exhalation, in which latter respect many Eucalypts vastly 

 surpass Elms, Oaks, Poplars and many other trees. The gradually 

 dropping foliage, unlike that of most other trees, acts also deodorizing 

 on the soil. Sir Will. Macarthur alluded likewise early to the healthi- 

 ness of Eucalyptus-regions. 



" It was through His Grace, Dr. J. A. Goold, R. C. Archbishop of 

 Melbourne, that plantations of E. Globulus were first established for sub- 



