161 
that my Roman friends may be induced to stimulate action 
in those who are more directly concerned, and not leave 
neglected such a promising source of comfort and of national 
wealth. For not only is this great source of power to be 
obtained in the rapidly growing wood, but the removal 
of malaria is the introduction of better cultivation and addi- 
tional wealth from other crops. 
Professor Boyd Dawkins. F.R.S., remarked that in 
Australia and Tasmania the eucalyptus grows in almost 
every sort of situation and from the sea level to a height 
of several thousand feet above the sea. It is to be seen 
growing equally well on arid rocky soil based on thick 
sandstones, analagous to our millstone grit, and on swampy 
ground. In the Blue Mountains a ridge of carboniferous 
rock rising in New South Wales to a height of 3,000 feet 
above the sea, it is subjected to considerable extremes of 
climate. At Mount Victoria, for example, on the 7th of 
August, 1875, there was a heavy fall of snow followed by a 
frost; and this, I was told, was by no means unusual in the 
winter. It seems, therefore, that some varieties of euca- 
lypti can stand a moderate amount of cold, and I see no 
reason why, if it be thought desirable to grow so ugly a tree, 
it should not be naturalised in this country. On this point, 
however, I have a letter from Sir Charles Nicholson, Bart., 
which is an important contribution to the history of the 
introduction of the plant into Europe. 
[copy.] 
“ Some years since I wrote to the Government botanist at 
Melbourne, suggesting to him the possibility of acclimatising 
