121 
LARGEST MEASURED TREES. 
placed amongst the exhibits at the Exhibition. Full particulars were given about 
seven tiees and mention made of an eighth. The greatest height recorded was 
320ft. lin.; the greatest girth 55ft. 7in.; results being from separate trees. 
J. H. Maiden in his Forest Flora , Vol. ii. pp. 161-165, discusses all these 
reports about tall trees. ITis article is strictly judicial in tone, but clearly 
discredits most of the statements made prior to 1888. Seven years later in a paper 
on Australian Vegetation issued in connection with the visit of the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science we find him expressing himself as 
follows:— 
The official size of the tallest Gippsland tree is given as—height, 326ft. lin.; 
girth, 25ft. 7in., measured 6 feet from ground; locality, spur of Mt. Baw Baw, 91 
miles from Melbourne. This is enormous, but different from the alleged heights 
of from 400 to 525 feet foisted on Mueller, and which will probably not be 
eradicated from the newspapers for another generation. 
“As regards the Californian trees brought into comparison, Prof. Sargent, an 
eminent authority, may be quoted, and in view of the actual measurements that he 
presents, viz., 340 feet in height for a Redwood and a girth round the trunk of 107 
feet for its congener the “Big Tree”, an opinion may be expressed that, so far as 
is known at present, California is the home both of the tallest and of the broadest 
trees in the world. The difference (under 14 feet) against the Gippsland tree is not 
large, and it would not be surprising if additional investigations should cause this 
friendly competition between Australia and the United States to end differently.” 
A. D. Hardy of the Victorian Forests Commission has ably discussed and 
summarized the whole question of tall trees in papers read before several scientific 
associations. Professor A. J. Ewart of the Melbourne University, has dealt with 
it in his Handbook of Forest Trees for Victorian Foresters. These two highly 
competent authorities, like Maiden, regard the early reports about tall trees as 
lacking verification and without even the support of probability. They are both 
disinclined to believe that trees now exist anywhere in Australia over 300ft. in 
height. 
Other tall-growing species of Eucalyptus are E. globulus, E. obliqua, E. 
diversicolor, E. pilularis and E. microcorys; but records of their maximum heights 
are not available. The truth on the whole, then, seems to be somewhat as follows: 
— (1) There is no unquestioned evidence to show that there ever were in any 
country trees 500 feet high. (2) The existence formerly in Australia of trees 400 
feet high is insufficiently attested, but cannot be denied. (3) The discovery in the 
E. regnans forests of trees considerably over 300 feet high may be regarded as 
having been proved. (4) Reports crediting other species with heights of 300 feet 
need confirmation. (5) Many valuable species have probably never reached a 
height of 250 feet, while many have never reached even 200 feet. The tallest 
eucalypts known to the writer as growing in New Zealand are all still under 200 
feet in height. 
The question of girths is less difficult and less important. The large-growing 
Eucalyptus trees begin their life with strong taproots that penetrate fai into the 
sub-sod. A.S the trees gam age and maturity the taproots die and decay. Each 
tree then becomes increasingly dependent upon its lateral loots and buttiesses, 
