February i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
525 
would be very desirable to keep this number as the 
standard. The first uote iu the number is on cubebs, 
which have lately become of considerable importance 
owing to the high price which the drug has attained. 
It is pointed out incidentally that the figure iu Bontloy 
aud Trimeu's " Mediciual Plants," which is giveu as 
from tho Royal ('aniens, Keiv has b' en proved to 
bo Piper Chaba, Huuter (Okavica officinaium Miquel), 
belonging to tlie long pepper family. To the note 
is added a correct drawing of the plant (male and 
female), takou from a Java Piper Oubeba aud one 
of Micmel's types in the Kew herbarium. A descrip- 
tion of the plant is given, aud it is stated that it 
is found wild only iu Java. Sumatra and Borneo. 
According to Deocourlitz cubeba were at one time 
cultivated as an introduction by the French in the 
West Iudies, but at present they are unknown there. 
The produce of other species of pepper are some- 
times called cubebs, such as the fruit of Piper horlio- 
nense, which yields the native cubebs of Mauritius 
(fiubibi tin pays) ; and, as pharmacists very well know, 
the recent high prices of the drug have brought 
into tho market all sorts and conditions of things 
which have passed as cubebs. — Chtiui.it ami Druggist. 
< 
GUM TREES. 
The rapid growth aud the value as timber and fuel 
of many of the Australian Gum trees (Eucalyptus), 
have induced planters in this country to attempt 
their cultivation, but the experiments have proved 
beyond question that none of the species is sufficiently 
hardy to bear the winters of the eastern aud central 
parts of this kingdom. Iu some localities they escape 
injurious effects during a cycle of comparatively mild 
winters, giving rise to hopes that they are permanently 
established, but a colder winter, or a cold, wet autumn, 
followed by an ordinary winter, kills or irreuiediably 
injures tho young trees. Of the many species tried 
at Kew, for instance, only one, Eucalyptus Gunnii 
(fig. lot), p. 781 j, tias lived through many years without 
some kind of protection, and the }Ouug shoots of this 
have often been destroyed. A tree of Eucalyptus 
Guuuii, which for many years Liore the incorrect name 
of Eucalyptus Polyauthema, stood, some thirty years 
ago, near the old Mosembryanthemum-house, neat 
or on the site of the present Oi chid-house, aud many 
will remember it as the first Australian tree they 
had seen growing iu the open air in England- It was 
then perhaps about 20 feel high, uud, so tar as we 
remember, it was not materially injured by the 
iuteuse frost of the winterof 1800-61, wheu large speci- 
mens of Oupressus macrocarpa and Pinna insiguis were 
knieu outright. That scasou tho thermometer fell, 
on two er three occasions, below zero at Kew, where if 
we remember rightly, it has never since been so low. 
B line years later, when the now range of houses 
was built, the alterations necessitated the removal 
of this tree, and it was transferred to the western 
slope of the mound on whicli the Temple of yEolus 
stands, near to No. 2 Museum, and the result was 
that it died to the ground, or nearly so, but, what 
wus surprising, it threw up new etems, and is still 
flourishing. It is a native of Tasmania, where 
it is oalled "Older tree," growing abundantly in 
marshy places at elevations of 3,000 to 4,000 feet, and 
forming u treo 20 to 30 feot high. The same species 
inhabits .Sjulh-eastoru Austrhtia, ascending in the 
alpine regions, acceding to Von Mueller, the 
hiatorian 61 the geuus, up to 5500 feet, where it is 
quite dwarf. Hut, according to the same authority, 
it i« also found in the lowlnuds, from Ouichen Bay 
an.: Lake Bunney, eastwards to Qippoland, and under 
the most f avourable conditions it attains a hoight of 
UU la t. Whether this lowiau I lur,n bo hardy in the 
neighbourhood of L union is questionable ; at all events, 
it would be safer to procure the lVnmdan or alpine' 
tone f'l, re i, a coloured plate of it in Hooker's 
/ 101 /'il.O'KUIUf. 
In Lot hill- of Arran this In tim thrives well, ami 
even on the eastoru aide of Scotland it withstands 
in certain loealitie-, ailri..,, ( i|,„ -everest winter/ 
In all interesting account ul Australian and New Zea- 
land atreeta in Arrau (Uan/eners' Okrantif, November 
27, 1886, p. 680), the Rev. P. Landsborough states that 
thero is, or rather was last year, a tree of Eucalyptus 
Gunnii at Whittingiiame, K.ist Luthiao, which was 
planted in 18-15, ami which though cut down to fhe 
ground by the frost in I860, is now more than 60 feet 
high, and matures seed, from which a stock of young 
plants has been raised. The foregoing evidence amply 
proves the hardiness of this species. 
Another species which is apparently hardy 
in the Bouth-western and western counties, is 
Eucalyptus coccifera, a native of Tasmania, exclu- 
sively growing on the tops of all the mountains, 
where it forms a bush or small tree 5 to 15 feet high. 
In England, at Powderhatn Oastle, Devonshire, lor 
instance, it has attained a height of 60 feet, with a 
girth of stem of V feet, and it flowers freely. In 
1879 this tree withstood 23" without injury ;see 
Gardeners' Chronicle, n. 8., xii., p. 113, with a figure 
of the tree, aud xiii., p. 325, with a figure of the 
flowers and fruit here reproduced ). One noteworthy 
circumstance is that it has apparently changed its 
flowering season, for it produced its flowers in December 
and January at Powderham Oastle in 1880, whereas 
in 1883 we find it notified (Gardeners' Chronicle, n. s., 
xix., p. TMJ that it wa9 iu full flower iu the middle 
of Juue. Fuller particulars will be found iu the places 
cited, aud there is a coloured plate iu the Botanical 
Magazine, 4637, prepared iu 1852 from a tree growing 
in the nursery of Messrs. Veitch at Exeter. This 
species also flourishes in peifection in the Isle of 
Arran and other parts of Great Britain and Ireland. 
The flowers of Eucalyptus coccifera have been described 
as purple, but they are represented as yellow with a 
purplish tinge towards the base. 
Eucalyptus alpina is a bushy species, kuown in a 
wild state only on the summit of Mount William in 
the Australian Grampians; aud seedlings of it raised 
in the Melbourne Botanic Garden attained a height 
of no more than 10 feet iu a quarter of a century. 
In Western Scotland it seems to have found a more 
congenial climate, having growu as much as 2 feet 
in one season. 
One of the varieties of Eucalyptus amygdalina sup- 
posed to be the giaut variety, trees of which have been 
meaeured exceeding 450 feet iu height, has proved 
hardy in Arrau since 1871, ami that la-t year it flower- 
ed for thf first time, in the mouth of August. 
Eucalyptus resinifera, a native of New South Wales 
and Queeusland, is recorded among the plants uniujurtd 
at Ventuor during the winter of ]879-80; w but its pre- 
servation was probably due *o accidental shelter rather 
.hau hardiness, because its home is « warm couutry. 
Eucalyptus cciiacea, a ;vco li.tv.og a wide range in 
Tasmania, Victoria, and New oout'n '.Vales, was report- 
ed as uninjured at Oolwyn in North W ales duriug the 
winter of 1879-aO, though it had suffered somewhat 
the previous winter. 
The singularly striking Blue Gum, Eucalyptus 
globulus, of which we give a photographic illustration 
in the present issue, which is now familiar, in the small 
state at least, to most gardeners, but is certaiuly 
much less hardy than E. Gunnii and E. coccifera. 
It was, however, uuinjured iu 1879*80 at Penzance, 
and at Oarron Tower, Lime, Antrim, where it bad 
attained a height of 50 feet. The wiuter of 1880-81 
killed all the Blue Gum trees in Arrau, except one 
at Eamlasb, whicli last year was 40 feet high, though 
it had been polled to the exteut of 8 feet. But al- 
though it may survive many years iu the most favour- 
able localities, and attain large dimensions, it is 
perhaps not absolutely hardy in any part of the 
United Kingdom, that is to say, in tho senso that it 
would be prudent to attempt planting it extensively 
with the idea of deriving p'otit therefrom. The ex- 
tremely rapid growth and long growing period render 
this speci'-s particularly m*G6pliblfl to froat, as the 
shoot- are rarely s.itlicicntlv matured. Baron Von 
Mueller's inter, sting history ul this species in tho 
Uaiilrnm' Chrmiif/i; July 31, 188X1, is sj complete, 
that there is notbiug we can ml < to it. But we may 
* Kev. II. Btrbank, in the Jm<rnal of the Royul 
Horticultural Stciitij i Frost Report), viii ,'p. 10. 
