z é mili OLNOW elt Rh mb 6€S10 IOLI € VAMUULIIUT O1 4O ALISHAAINN weno He anenn nr 4 et TON gg nouny aap eyomees emman ® “ LIBRARY FACULTY OF FORESTRY UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/forestcultureeucO0coopuoft a. mR FOREST CULTURE AND universal forest supervision, nor a judicious restraint of consumption, nor an ample utilization of all the various collateral resources of our woodlands, received that serious attention to which such measures became more and more entitled. During the earlier years of our colonization, while the population was but thinly scattered over the ter- ritory, or densely concentrated in a few places only, all demands on the wood resources were comparatively so limited as to cause, perhaps, nowhere vast destruc- tion of the timber vegetation, much less any alarm for meeting the requirements of the future. Then followed the first gold period, with all its bustle, tur- moils and agitations, preventing reflection on almost anything except the immediate wants of that stormy time. Subsequently, when the commotion and ex- citement of the earlier gold era had calmed down, other obstacles arose, which, in their conflicts, brought much sadness on this young country, and retarded for years its full progress. But now, when apparent- ly also these difficulties have been surmounted, it will . be all the more incumbent on our statesmen and legis- lators to exclude no longer from their consideration and watchfulness that remaining portion of a bequest which bountiful Nature, in its rich woods, has in- trusted to our care, The maintenance of these forest riches should engage not only the loftiest forethought, but also a well-guided and scrupulous vigilance. How forests beneficially affect a clime, how they supply equable humidity, how they-afford extensive shelter, create springs, and control the flow of rivers— all this the teachings of science, the records of history, and more forcibly still, the sufferings or even ruin of EUCALYPTUS TREES. 11 numerous and vast communities, have demonstrated in sad experiences, not only in times long past, but even in very recent periods. In what manner the forests arrest passing miasmata, or set a limit to the spreading of rust-spores from ruined cornfields; in what manner their humid atmosphere and their feath- ered singers effectually obstruct the march of armies of locusts in the Orient, or hinder the progress of vast masses of acrydia in North America, or oppose the wanderings of other insects elsewhere — all this has been clearly witnessed in our own age. How the for- ests, as slow conductors of heat, lessen the tempera- ture of warm climes, or banish siroccos ; how forests, as ready conductors of electricity, much influence and attract the current of the vapors, or impede the elas- tic flow of the air, with its storms and its humidity, far above the actual height of the trees, and how they condense the moisture of the clouds by lowering the temperature of the atmosphere, has over and over again been ascertained by many a thoughtful observer. In what mode forests shelter the soil from solar heat, and produce coolness through radiation from the end- lessly-multiplied surfaces of their leaves, and through the process of exhalations ; how, in the spongy stra- tum of decaying vegetable remnants, they retain far more humidity than even cultivated soil; how they with avidity re-absorb the surplus of moisture from the air, and refresh by a never-wanting dew all vege- tation within them and in their vicinity, has been explained, not only by natural philosophy, but also | often by observations of the plainest kind. How for- est-trees, by the powerful penetration of their roots, decompose the rocks, and force unceasingly from deep 12 FOREST CULTURE AND strata the mineral elements.of vegetable nutrition to the surface ; how they create and maintain the sources for the gentle flow of watercourses for motive power, aqueducts, irrigation, water - traffic and navigation ; how they mitigate or prevent malarious influences — of all this we become cognizant by daily experiences almost everywhere around us. We have to look, therefore, far beyond a mere temporary wood supply, when we wish to estimate the blessings of forest vege- tation rightly ; and our mind has to grasp the com- plex causes and sequences originating with and de- pending on the forests, before their value as a total can be understood. “« Here, in the sultriest season, let us rest : Fresh is the green beneath those aged trees ; Here air of gentlest wing will fan our breast— From heaven itself we may inhale the breeze,”’ Byron. Let us then take timely warning ; let us remember that denuded earth parts with its warmth by radiation, and is intensely heated by insulation ; that thus in woodless countries the extremes of climate are brought about in rendering the Winter-cold far more intense and boisterous, and the Summer-heat far more burning and oppressive. Let us remember why the absence or destruction of forests involves periodic floods and droughts, with all the great disasters inseparable therefrom. Let us bear in mind that even in our praised Australia many a pastoral tenant saw his herds and flocks perish, and even the very kangaroos off his run; how he looked hopefully for months and months at every promising cloud which drew up on the hori- zon, only to dissolve rainless in the dry desert air ; whereas, when the squatter’s ruin was completed, EUCALYPTUS TREES. 13 the last pasture parched, and the last waterpool dried up, great atmospheric changes would send the rain- clouds over the thirsty land with all the vehemence of precipitation, and would convert dry creeks into foaming torrents, or inundate with furious floods the very pastures over which the carcasses of the famished cattle and sheep were strewn about! Picture to your. selves the ruined occupant of the soil, hardly able - to escape with his bare life from the sudden scenes of these tragic disasters! Fortunately, as yet such ex- treme events may not have happened commonly ; yet they did occur, and pronounced their lessons impress- ively. Let it be well considered that it is not alone the injudicious overstocking of many a pasture, or the want of water-storage, but frequently the very want of rain itself for years in extensive woodless districts, which renders occupation of many of our inland tracts so precarious. Let it also not be forgot- ten how, without a due proportion of woodland, no country can be great and prosperous! Remember how whole mountain districts of Southern Europe be- came, with the fall of the forests, utterly depopulated; how the gushes of wide currents washed away all ara- ble soil, while the bordering flat land became buried in debris ; how its rivers became filled with sediment, while the population of the lowland were at the same time involved in poverty and ruin! Let us recollect that in many places the remaining alpine inhabitant had to toil with his very fuel for many miles up to the once wooded hills, where barrenness and bleakness would perhaps no longer allow a tree to vegetate! It should be borne in mind that the productiveness of cereal fields is often increased at the rate of fully fifty 14 FOREST CULTURE AND per cent. merely by establishing plantations of shelter- trees ; that the progress of drift-sand is checked by tree-plantations ; and that a belt of timber not only affords protection against storms, but also converts sandy wastes finally into arable meadows, thus adding almost unobserved, yet unceasingly, so far to the re- sources of a country. Shall we follow, then, the example of those improvi- dent populations who, by clearing of forests, dimin- ished most unduly the annual fall of rain, or pre- vented its retention ; who caused a dearth of timber and fuel, by. which not solely the operations of their artisans became already hindered or even paralyzed, but through which even many a flourishing country — tract was already converted almost into a desert Should we not rather commence to convert any desert tract into a smiling country, by thinking early and unselfishly of the requirements of those who are to_. follow us? Why not rather imitate the example set by an Egyptian sovereign, who alone caused, during the earlier part of this century, 20,000,000 of trees — to be planted in formerly rainless parts of his domin- ions. Dr. H. Rogers, of Mauritius, issued, this year, a re- port ‘‘on the effects of the cutting-down of forests on the climate and health of Mauritius.” Still, in 1854, the island was resorted to by invalids from India as the ‘¢pearl”’ of the Indian Ocean, it being then one mass of verdure. When the forests were cleared, to gain space for sugar cultivation, the rainfall dimin- ’ ished even there ; the rivers dwindled down to mud- dy streams ; the water became stagnant in cracks, revices, and natural hollows while the equable tem- EUCALYPTUS TREES. 15 perature of the island entirely changed ; even drought was experienced in the midst of the ocean, and thun- der-showers were rarely any longer witnessed. The lagoons, marshes, and swamps along the seaboard were no longer filled with water, but gave off nox- ious gases; while the river- waters became impure from various refuse. After a violent inundation, in February, 1865, followed by a period of complete dry- ness, fever, of a low type, set in, against which the’ remedies employed in ordinary febrile cases proved utterly valueless. From the waterless sides of the lagoons, pestilential malaria arose, exposed to which the laborers fell on the field, and, in some instances, died within a few hours afterward. But scarcity of good food among the destitute classes, and inadequate sewage arrangement, predisposed also to the dread- ful effect of the fever, atthe time. As stated by my- self, on a former public occasion, marshes should either be fully drained or the means of continuing them submerged should not be withdrawn. Dr. Rogers very properly insists that the plateaux and highlands of Mauritius must be replanted, alone on sanitary reasons. The small island of Maita re- quires, at this moment, to make strenuous effort for wood culture, to render tillage further possible and the clime more tolerable. The once forest-covered hills, which bordered the rich garden country of Mur- cia, in Moorish times, are now masses of arid rocks ; while Spain, nowadays, is even helpless to obtain its ' very fuel, and thus all its technologic industries must languish. No wonder, then, if our here much-disre- garded Eucalypts are called there the trees of the future. 16 FOREST CULTURE AND But I have, on this occasion, dwelt already long enough on the stern necessity of securing a due rela- tion of forest to territory, of woods to climate, of tim- ber to industries. These great questions have been discussed, by able men, through time long passed, in all countries of civilization. The details, moreover, of such discussions demand a special and fuller teach- ing, for which, perhaps, opportunities may yet arise in this hall. But to those who wish early to devote fuller attention to vital considerations of this kind, I would recommend the perusal of the admirable work of George P. Marsh (Man and Nature; or Physical Geography, as modified by Human Action. London: 1864). That author studied the scattered and largely foreign literature pertaining to this subject with sin- gular care, observed very many original facts, and argued on them with great ability. A smaller, still more recent publication (Disastrous Effects of the De- struction of Forest Trees in Wisconsin, by Lapham, Knapp, and Crocker, published in 1867) is also de- serving full attention, inasmuch as it brings before us the difficulties and losses which the destruction of the forests has already caused in one of the younger of the American States ; while, again, Indian experiences in regard to forests may be traced in the valuable vol- ume issued by Dr. Cleghorn (Forests of the Punjab and Western Himalaya ; Roor Kee, 1864). Some observa- tions of my own, applying to countries like North Af- rica, have been recorded two years ago in the Bulle. tin de la Societe d’ Agriculture d’ Alger. One of the main objects, however, of my address this evening, is to show in what manner a well-or- ganized and yet inexpensive system of forest admin- EUCALYPTUS TREES. 17 istration might check the indiscriminate destruction of the woods, without, perhaps, lessening the rate of the present yield; in what manner numerous latent industrial resources of our ranges might be speedily and successfully developed, and a higher revenue thus be raised by the state ; in what manner this increased income could be best employed, to maintain orenrich the forests, or to raise woods where naturally none existed ; and by what new means prosperous occupa- tion might be afforded to many a happy family in the still and salubrious sylvan recesses of this country. And here I would at once remark, that for any ad- ministrative organization to watch over our forest interests we must follow an independent path of our own in this young country, because the systems of forest management adopted with so much advantage in Germany, France, and Scandinavia are here appli- eable only to a very limited extent. This must be at once apparent to any one who will reflect on the dis- parity which exists between our clime, our native tree vegetation, our present ratio of population and value of labor, as compared with similar conditions of the older and far more densely inhabited countries of middle and northern Europe, not to speak of the very much wider scope which, for the selection of trees for our future use, the isothermal zone of Victoria allows. On the latter subject our Acclimatization Society has recently published the views which I entertain in ref- erence to the many various trees eligible for the geo- _ graphic latitudes of a colony like,ours.* Next I pro- _ceed to give, though very briefly, only an outline of the special system of administration, which I would * Appendix to the Annual Report of the Vict. Acclimat. Soc., 1870-71. 3 18 FOREST CULTURE AND advise to be adopted in the first instance, as well for the supervision, enrichment, and utilization of our nitive forests as for creating also new ones. On vari- ous oceasions I have alluded to such a plan of surveil- lance before. More recently, though only passingly, in a lecture delivered at this hall, I advocated the formation of local Forest Boards in the different dis- tricts of our colonial territory. 7arious considera- tions led me to recommend this system. The admin- istration, as an honorary one, would involve no direct expenditure to the State. It would bring to bear in each locality special watchfulness and local talent. In each district could readily be found a few inhabit- ants who not only possess some knowledge of tree- culture in general, but who, also, by their. direct in- terest in the present and future welfare of the locality in which they live, in which they gained experiences, in which they hold property, and in which they rear- ed a family, would be induced, as much for the sake of direct and lasting advantages as from patriotic motives, to devote the needful time for serving on a local Forest Board. But there are still other weighty advantages, which claim support for this proposition. Various tracts of the Victorian territory are—as might be imagined — very unlike in climate and geologic structure. Each locality shows peculiar adaptabilities for special trees to be selected. One district can afford, by the possession of more extensive primeval forests, to be far more heavily taxed in its timber resources than another ; one tract of country can produce remu- neratively certain trees, which it would be hopeless to attempt raising in another locality. Some exten- sive areas have no forests at all, and in others they EUCALYPTUS TREES. 19 have all but succumbed already. Hence each Forest Board can best frame its own by-laws or local regula- tions, subject to the approval of ministerial authority ; each can best judge of its own particular requirements, not only for the present generation, but also of such as will be urgent at atime when the children and grand-children of the earlier colonists will have to form their judgment on the wisdom or shortcomings of their ancestors here at a time when the want of foresight may fall most crushingly on the vitality or progress of many an industry or even the whole pros- perity of the colony, or when, otherwise, the early operations of thoughtful local residents will prove to posterity an incalculable benefit. It will then become apparent whether the present colonists have done their duty to their descendants, and havebeen faith- ful to the future interests of their adopted country ; -or whether they sunk all their ideas and efforts in temporary gain, regardless of all consequences. Each forest district, thus guarded by local administrators, will be able to produce a far larger income than now is raised from any of our wood areas; while the re- moval of timber will be brought within more reason- able bounds, and the wants of the future no longer be disregarded. Means of disposal of the wood, differ- ent to the regulations now in force, would be adopted, to save, in places much denuded already of wood, the rest of the timber from complete destruction. Thus, for instance, trees might be sold by numbers at cer- tain sizes, with saving of the youthful trees; or the wood might be removed by the square mile, with a view of replanting. The reckless ringing of trees (merely to obtain a little more grass) and stripping of 20) FOREST CULTURE AND bark would be brought within stringent laws, and many other losses be obviated. A gentleman at Hillesley counts, as late as this very month, five splendid trees on an acre, cut down by the splitters, while only about one tenth of the wood is used; nine tenths being left to be swept away, sooner or later, by bush-fires. This improvidence goes on within a few hours’ drive from Melbourne. The stately sea-coast Banksias (Banksia integrifolia), so rare near Melbourne, and hardly occurring further westward, have been nearly exterminated within this month, as near tous as Brighton. On all this, local forest surveillance can form far the best opinion. Each Board should have its cultivator, who, simul- taneously, could perform the duties of forest-ranger. A few unprovided orphan boys might be occupied in the simple nursery or planting work for the forests. The officer intrusted with forest duties on behalf of the Government might aid, by frequent visits to each forest district, the various Boards with much advice. The expenditure for such an organization in each instance would be most moderate, would be product- ive already of early remunerative gain, and cause large and immediate savings. No statesman, I feel assured, would wish to impoverish our woods at the expense of the next generation, just as little as any legislator would hesitate to re-vote annually, for each forest administration, atleast a portion of the revenue raised from the woods under its control. A sound economy of the State will not expect from a forest in populous localities any more than to devote its means for self-support. One of the first duties devolving on any forest department would undoubtedly be to cause EUCALYPTUS TREES. 2. in each district some fertile, sheltered valleys, readily accessible to good lines of traffic, to be selected, where, from springs, or rivulets, water could be obtained for inexpensive irrigation, in order to reserve such spots for forest nurseries before they are all alienated from the Crown. The transit of the miilions of seedlings needed for-forest plantations, from remote spots, would not only be one of enormous and unnecessary expend-~ iture, but, in the many instances of evergreen and even some deciduous trees, it would be next to impos- sible to convey living plants for long distances, The union of Forest Boards to Road Boards or Shire Coun- cils I regard inadvisable, because their scope of action is so different. The predilections of a member of a municipality will often be in building operations and kindred objects, while for culture processes he may have neither inclination nor experience, It is never wise to burden too heavy responsibilities on a few honorary administrators, whose leisure in this youth- ful country, where so much work is yet under the first or early process of creating, is almost sure to be but limited. But there are instances in which—as, indeed, a thoughtful legislator has suggested —the Mining Boards might exercise, in their vicinity, supervision also over the woods. On many professional ques- tions, such as the renovation of forests, the best util- ization of their products, the increase of their riches, I would, myself, very gladly afford advice, and thus maintain a consulting position to the Forest Boards ; for, need I add, it has ever been my aim to serve, as far as it was within my means, the best interests of my fellow-colonists ; and while official responsibility 22 FOREST CULTURE AND rests on me in this direction, I would wish to meet it in such a way that those who will live after us shall never be able to tax me with blindness to any impor- tant interest of our colony, so far as such were intrust- ed to my charge. But, then, the views of a profes- sional officer should be received with that considera- tion, and be seconded with that support, to which they have fair claim. I pass the subject of the incalculable value of the native woods, such as we still possess in our own for- ests, whether viewed in their relation to arts or as mercantile export commodities. It isa matter far too large to dwellon, even cursorily, on this occasion. Were I to enumerate all the uses already practically known of our native trees, I would have to compile a goodly volume, even were I silent on the still far ampler subject of the introduction of the thousands of different foreign trees which I should like to see here for the use of future artisans and those who are to benefit by their services. A work bearing on the. nature of the forest- trees of India, by Dr. Balfour, was kindly placed in my hands by Col. Sankey, whose stay among us we at present (22d June, 1871) enjoy for advice on our water-works. Major Beddome, of Madras, issues a kindred illustrated work. I may, however, be allowed to point to the enor- mous consumption of indigenous wood in some locali- ties, as this expenditure is utterly out of all proportion to the existing supply or its present natural renova- tion. This question presents itself all the more grave- ly, as no rich coal-seams are as yet discovered, by which the fuel-supply could be augmented from short (listances, at a moderate price, We haye also to be EUCALYPTUS TREES. 23 cognizant that we cannot think of coal-fields as inex- haustible, even in the richest coal countries ; and, although it is to be hoped that the day is very distant when the cheap results of colliery work will be marred by the much - increasing depth of the coal mines, or their partial exhaustion, yet we cannot altogether discard the idea that, so far as coals are concerned, we are working ona capital, however large it may be, without ever adding to it. In Victoria, we can neither augment the supply of burning material by peat, such as is so extensively utilized for fuel in the countries of the North, except we bring a very similar and equally useful peat from the distant and rug- ged heights of our Alpine mountains. Although science has promised us_ prophetically other sources for applied heat—and Imay add, motive power — in gases not yet within our technie reach or of universal application, we have, nevertheless, to deal with the stern realities of the day until new sci- entific achievements in this direction shall have been accomplished. At best, and looking ever so hopefully forward to the successes of the future, we cannot sub- stitute in an endless array of purposes air or coal for the ever-wanted living wood, even if all that concerns climate and health could be left out of our contempla- tion. As an instance, then, of our present consump- tion, or almost immediate requirements of wood, I would like to quote one or two examples. The able Engineer - in- chief of the Railway De- partment —T. Higinbotham, Esq. —has obligingly supplied me with the following data in reference to the timber at present consumed for the Government railway lines, This gentleman explains also what will 24 FOREST CULTURE AND most likely be needed within the next few years for this purpose. ‘¢The number of sleepers which are used annually on the existing lines of railway, to replace decayed sleepers, is about forty thousand; and there can be no doubt that renewals at this rate at least must be con- tinued for many years to come. Each sleeper con- tains three and one eighth cubic feet of timber, and for renewals Red Gum timber is used exclusively, the principal supplies being obtained from the Murray River. «‘The length of fencing, which is renewed annually on the existing lines, may be taken at eighteen miles, and the quantity of timber in a mile of fencing is about three thousand cubic feet ; the timber used in renew- ing fencing is Messmate, Peppermint, and Stringy- bark, and the durability of these timbers when used for fencing may be taken at ten years. ‘‘There are at present nearly one hundred and twenty miles of new railway in course of construction, and sixty miles more will be undertaken before the close of this year. The new line of railway, the North-eastern, will be one hundred and eighty-one miles long, and for each mile two thousand sleepers are required, which at three and one eighth cubic feet per sleeper gives six thousand two hundred and fifty cubic feet per mile ; or, for the whole length of one hundred and eighty-one miles, one million one hundred and thirty-one thousand two hundred and fifty cubic feet will be required for sleepers. The timber to be used in these sleepers will be Red Gum, Iron-bark, or Box. Ihave no actual experience of the durability of these timbers when used for sleepers ; but I believe EUCALYPTUS TREES. 25 that it will be quite safe to reckon on their lasting for eighteen years. The ordinary Gums, when used for sleepers, will not last more than half that time. ‘¢ The quantity of timber required for fencing the North-eastern railway will be one million eighty-six thousand cubie feet. The fence-posts will be of Red Gum, Iron-bark, Blue Gum, or Box, and the rails of Stringy-bark. Ithink that a fence of these materials will last for eighteen years. As to projected railways, it seems to be probable that on the average from thir- ty to forty miles will be made for the next ten years, in addition to the North-eastern railway already in progress. ’’ I am further told, by a gentleman conversant with our railway affairs, that the engines on the present Government line use about three thousand tons of wood a year, while about eight hundred tons more are consumed on the stations. The Government line requires one hundred and fifty thousand Blackwood keys annually. On inquiry, I havealso learned that the breakwater at Williamstown will take four hun- dred piles, equal to eighteen thousand cubic feet, and for the superstructure of the piers ten thousand cubic feet more. The Melbourne Gas-works required, in 1870, not less than forty thousand superficial feet of Red Gum timber. The quantity of Red Gum wood required for these and other purposes cannot be in- creased by supplies from Tasmania, as the tree does not exist there. Again: the true Blue Gum-tree does not naturally occur beyond Victoria and Tasma- nia. If complete wood statistics could be collected, both of our daily requirements in town, on land, and on sea, and statistics also as to what really sound and 2 %8 26 FOREST CULTURE AND straight timber is still available, some serious realities would be brought before us. At Ballarat, Creswick, Beechworth, Yackandandah, Sandhurst, Heathcote, Maryborough, Avoca, Castle- maine, Fryer’s Creek, and Ararat, some of the tim- ber for the mines has to be brought already from dis- tances as remote as ten to sixteen miles, according to returns of the Mining Surveyor, kindly furnished by Mr. R. Brough Smyth. At Pleasant Creek the min- ers have to go every year a mile further for their wood. I quote the following important statement from Mr, R. B. Smyth’s Mineral Statistics of Victoria for 1870 : Table showing approximately the Quantity and Cost of Timber consumed annually for Mining Purposes in the several Mining Districts, from returns made by the Mining Surveyors and Registrars. ( Firewood, etc........... 320,601 tons. ] £ 8. d. Props and cap-pieces....1,650,555 pes, aths and slabs......... 1274, pes. “ | Lath dslab 4.274.798 + 203,024 4 7 Sawn timber............5,772,110 feet. J {i Birewood;'etey.eere. ce 45,600 tons. ) Props and cap-pieces.... 155,778 pcs. BEsCHWOHEE: sand bushels were brought to New York. It is esti- mated that Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and Carolina 76 FOREST CULTURE AND have conjointly sent over one million bushels to mar: ket in 1870. The yield, it is said, is from eighty to one hundred and twenty bushels on an acre. The seeds are slightly roasted for the table, or pressed for a palatable oil. As much as ten shillings to twelve shillings is paid for the bushel in New York. The plant seems well eligible for forest-farms, particularly in a somewhat calcareous soil. In the garden under my control I have reared it with ease. I intended to have spoken of the various imple- ments especially designed for wood-culture; but time - will not admit of it. Thus, merely by way of exam- ple, I place before you one of those utensils — the hohlborer, or, as it might be called, the ‘‘ bore-spade’’ —brought into use nearly fifty years ago by a scientific forester, Dr. Heyer, of Giessen. Several thousand plants of the Scotch Fir and of other pines can be lifted with this bore-spade in a day by one forest laborer, the object being that each seedling should retain a small earth-ball, to facilitate the success of the mov- ing process. About ten thousand such seedlings are conveyed at a time in a forest wagon.* And yet, it must be confessed, our colony, with others in the Australian group, has accomplished but very little in any branch of sylvan maintenance, or forest culture, or the advance of industrial pursuits in our woodlands. One precursory step, however, has been made, and. this is likely to be followed. I allude to the exten- sive gratuitous distribution of plants to public grounds in most parts of our colony—a distribution which has been in operation under the authority of Government * Since this lecture was delivered a short account of the bore-spade has appeared in the Melbourne Economist. EUCALYPTUS TREES. 77 from ground under my control for the last twelve years. I should think it not unlikely that this rais- ing of trees in masses will soon become also a special object of attention to the railway department, within its own areas, to re-supply its own wants. While a divine may withdraw some of his slender means, or a teacher may devote a share of his scanty earning, to inclose the ground of his dwelling, with a view of protecting a few trees on spots not really their own, we may be sure that the authorities do not wish to see hundreds of miles of railway fences long left unutilized, so far as planting of trees is con- cerned, particularly as such fences for this purpose afford much ready inducement. The average width of the railway area is two and a half chains, both on the Ballarat and Echuca lines, therefore far wider than that of European lines, and spacious enough for tree plantations, at least of some kinds. The length of the N. E. Railway line will be one hundred and eighty-five miles, giving, consequently, three hundred and seventy miles’ length for plantations. The slower- growing or less - lofty trees would there be on their place, such as our Red Gum-tree, the Iron-bark-tree, the W. A. Yarrah, the Blackwood-tree, the British Oak, the Quebec and Live Oak, the Cork Oak, the Elm, the Ash, the Totara, the Chestnut -tree, the Walnut, the Hickory, and many others which do not suffer from exposure ; for while the railway loan will last for an indefinite period, the railway material, such as the fences, sleepers, cars, will not last forever, and for these the wood might thus inexpensively become re-available in due time. Even where the railway space is narrow the operation of lopping the 78 FOREST CULTURE AND planted trees along its lines might most readily be resorted to, and dangerous encroachments thereby be avoided. No one ever expected our most serviceable Railway Department to be burdened with the additional heavy task of entering on cultural pursuits, and I see no way of attaining the object here specially indicated unless purposely financial means and administrative organizations were provided by the State, In a special work (Die Bepflanzung der Eisenbahn Damme, etc., by E. Lucas, second edition, 1870) the methods adopted in Germany for utilizing the railway dams, and the free space within railway fences, for wood and fruit culture, is amply discussed. With the increasing value of culture-land this question of utilizing the spare ground along railways becomes more and more important. Where the space proves too narrow for rearing timber- trees, Hazel, Olives, Figs, Mulberries, Almonds, Osiers, Sumach, Myall, Ricinus, Blackberries, and such other lower trees or bushes as require no great attention, could doubtless be grown with profit. It might also be possible to establish advantageously permanent hedges of Haw- thorn, Opuntias, Osage Orange, and other not readily- inflammable and easily-managed bushes. Luzern and Sainfoin are much cultivated along continental rail- way-lines as fodder-herbs. In North America six hundred and fifty Walnuts or Hickories are planted on an acre ; though standing so close, they are worth twelve shillings in twenty _ years for a variety of purposes. If wanted for heavy timber or nuts, they are thinned out so as to keep them twenty feet apart, This may serve as an indi- EUCALYPTUS TREES. 79 ~ eation how spare places on railways might be utilized. Our regular and quick communication with California is giving now easy opportunity for importing nuts of the various American Hickories and Walnut-trees in quantity ; while of the ordinary Persian Walnut-tree seeds can already be obtained both here and in Tas- mania. Resinous Pine-trees may possibly increase any danger of conflagrations on railway-lines. Nur- series for sowing seeds of hardy utilitarian trees might at once be established on all the railway-stations at comparatively little cost. The only effective public effort hitherto made to anticipate the necessities of forest culture consists in the planting of public reserves, parks, church-yards, school-grounds, cemeteries, and the area of many of our public buildings.. The trading horticulturists have also largely aided in the importation and raising of foreign trees. In this effort, as already remarked, I took a promi- nent share, or perhaps, in many instances, it origi- nated from impulses or supports given by myself. Undoubtedly, it was a primary object to cover the dismal barrenness of public grounds, to help in miti- gating thereby local dryness and heat, to afford shade and shelter, and torender many a barren spot a pleas- ing retreat. But this was not my only object. I had a second, and, to my mind, higher one in view. I wished that, locally, many nuclei for forest cult- ure should be formed ; that, within comparatively few years, seeds should almost everywhere become avail- able in masses from local tree-plantations ; and that thus efforts now made for parks and pleasure-grounds 80 FOREST CULTURE AND should be enlarged for creating more or less extensive forests. These ideas may, perhaps, excite some surprise, yet I feel confident that they will and must be acted on before, in frightful truthfulness, the terrors of a woodless country in our zone, and settled with a fu- ture dense population, will be encountered. Should, however, my warnings fail to impress the public mind, then at least I have placed my views on record, and should not be held responsible for inter- ests, however vital, which the trust of my position must largely bring under my reflection and care. My effort in supplying merely material for raising local plantations all over the colony is, however, but the first step ina great national work of progress ; and I think we may reflect, not without some pride, that this public step was made in Australia here first of all. Halfa million of plants distributed by me to public institutions is, after all, but a trifle in a country that requires hundreds of millions of foreign trees, if it really is to advance to greatness and the highest pros- perity ; a greatness that will be retarded in the same degree as attention to this, one of its most urgent in- terests, is deferred. The gifts of plants from the establishment under my control have provided the country with many a species that otherwise would not have existed here yet. Many of the magnificent or quick-growing Him- alayan and California Pines, not to speak of others, became through my hand first dispersed by thousands and thousands; and although I may have incurred the displeasure of a few of the less thoughtful of my EUCALYPTUS TREES. 81 fellow-citizens, who wished the slender means of my young establishments appropriated for the ephemeral glory of floral displays, and who wished to sacrifice lasting progress to unproductive gaiety, yet I feel assured that the fair feelings of the inhabitants of Victoria in general will approve of the path of pre- dominant utility which I struck out for myself, and will respect the considerations which prompted me, in an equitable spirit toward town and country , to attend in the first instance to pressing necessities, leaving the unnecessary or less useful for the exertions of a later time. If a census of the trees, which are to furnish us much seed for forest culture, could be held all over the colony, perhaps my early efforts would be viewed with more justice and gratitude. “ They did of solace treat, And bathe in pleasure of the joyous shade, Which shielded them against the broiling heat, And with green bough decked the gloomy glade.” SPENSER. In passing through a demolished forest, how sad- dening to us its aspect! What mind, capable of high- er feelings, can suppress its sympathy, when we see stretched and withering on the ground a princely tree which but a few hours previously was an object of our admiration and a living monument of magnificence and glory. Do you think it had its enjoyment ? Does it send mere automatically, without animation or sensibility of any kind, its crown to the sunny sky, or drink joyless the pearly dew ? Do you think it closes its flowers but mechanically, or unfolds them again to imbibe light and genial warmth, absolutely without gladness or pleasure of any kind? What is 82 FOREST CULTURE AND a vitality, and what mortal will measure the share of delight enjoyed by any organism! Why should even the life of a plant be expended cruelly and wastefully, especially if, perhaps, this very plant stood already in youthful elegance, while yet the diprotodon (a wom- bat of the size of a buffalo) was roaming over the for- est ridges encircling Port Phillip Bay—when those forest ridges on the very place of this city were still clothed in their full natal garb. Do not assume that I lean to transmutation doctrines ; or that to my un- derstanding there is an uninterrupted transit from the thoughts which inspire the mind to the faculties of animals and to the vitality of plants! Yet that individual life, whatever it may be, which we often so thoughtlessly and so ruthlessly destroy, but which we never can restore, should be respected. Is it not as if the sinking tree was speaking imploringly to us, and when falling wished to convey to us its sadness and its grief? Like the nomadic wanderer of the Australian soil passed away before us, so I fear most of the traces of our beautiful and evergreen forest will be lost ere long. . Itis a goodly sight to see What heaven has done for this delicious land ; What flowers of fragrance blush on every tree, What glad’ning prospects o’er the hills expand ! But man would mar them with an impious hand.’”’ BYRON. Beyond the plain utilitarian purposes of our forests (some of which I endeavored briefly to explain), and beyond all, the important functions which the woods have to perform in the great economy of Nature, they possess still other claims on our consideration, such as ought to evoke some feeling of piety toward them, EUCALYPTUS TREES. 83 It was in the forests where the poetic mind of Schil- ler, during his early boyhood,* first of all awoke to its deep love for nature; where his strong sense for noble rectitude was formed; where he framed his ideals of all that is elevated and great. This influ- ence of nature we see reflected in other lofty minds ; it leads true genius on its luminous path. Contrast the magnificence of a dense forest, before the de- structive hand of man defaced it, with the cheerless aspect of wide landscapes devoid of wooded scenery— only open plains or treeless ridges bounding the hori- zon. The silent grandeur and solitude of a virgin forest inspires us almost with awe —much more so than even the broad expanse of the ocean. It con- veys, also, involuntarily to our mind a feeling as if we were brought more closely before the Divine Pow- er by whom the worlds without end were created, and before whom the proudest human work must sink into utter insignificance, No settlement, how- ever princely — no city, however great its splendor, brilliant its arts, or enchanting its pleasures — can arouse those sentiments of veneration which, among all the grand works of nature, an undisturbed noble forest-region is most apt to call forth. I never saw truly happier homes of unmingled contentedness than in the seclusion of the woods. It is as if the bracing pureness of the air, the remoteness from the outer world, the unrestricted freedom from formal restraint, give to forest-life a charm for which in vain we will ever seek elsewhere. The forest inhabitant, as a rule, sees his life prolonged ; an air of peace on all sides sur- rounds him; even with less prosperity, he is glad to ee * Sketch of the Life of Schiller, by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, p. 2, 84 FOREST CULTURE. break away from the turmoils and enmities into which elsewhere he is thrown by the bustle and struggle of the world, and to seek again this calm retreat in forest mountains. The existence of many an invalid might be prolonged and rendered more enjoyable, while many a sufferer might be restored to health, were he to seek timely the patriarchal simplicity of forest- life, and the pure air, wafted decarbonized in. deli- cious freshness through the forest, ever invigorating strength, restoring exhilaration and buoyancy of his mind. in this young country new lines of railway are early to disclose some of the almost paradisic fea- tures of sylvan scenery, hitherto known to most of us only through the talent of illustrious landscape-paint- ers of this city. «To sit on rocks, to muse o’er flood and fell ; To slowly trace the forest’s shady scene, Where things that own not man’s dominion dwell, And mortal foot has ne’er or rarely been ; To climb the trackless mountain, all unseen, With the wild flock, that never need a fold ; Alone o’er steep and foaming falls to lean— This is not solitude: ’tis but to hold Converse with nature’s charms, and view her stores untold.” BYRON. I regard the forest as an heritage given to us by Nature, not for spoil or to devastate, but to be wisely used, reverently honored, and carefully maintained. I regard the forests as a gift, intrusted to any of us only for transient care during a short space of time, to be surrendered to posterity again as an unimpaired property, with increased riches and augmented bless- ings to pass as a sacred patrimony from generation to generation, ON THE APPLICATION OF [ HYTOLOGY TO THE INDUSTRIAL PURPOSES OF LIFE. A; POPULAR DISCOURSE, ahead at the Industrial Museum of Melbourne, on 8a November, 1870. By Ferdinand von Mueller, C.M.G., M.D., Ph. D., F.R.S, Comm. Ord., Santiago, En. of Orders of Austria, France, Prussia, Italy, Wuertemberg, Denmark, Mecklenburg, Gotha; Government Botanist for Victoria, and Director of the Botanic Gardens at Melbourne. Called upon somewhat suddenly to choose the theme for the discourse of this evening, I made my choice unguardedly. I anticipated in my thoughts how, during the intended instructive recreation of this hour, the bearings of intimate botanic knowledge on many an industrial pursuit might readily be dem- onstrated by some impressive facts. But, on reflec- tion, I saw myself at once surrounded by so varied -and bewildering a multitude of objects that to do jus. tice in a few words to my theme became a hopeless task. But while I offer this mere introductory ad- dress for a series of lectures on the phytologic section 86 FOREST CULTURE AND of this institution, we might learn by a rapid glance over an area of knowledge singularly wide that only through many successive discourses, explaining sub- jects in detail, the student can become aware of the importance of phytologic knowledge in its relation to the industrial purposes of life. In all zones, except the most icy, mankind depends on plants for its prin- cipal wants. For our sustenance, clothing, dwellings, or utensils ; for our means of transit, whether by sea or land; indeed, for all our ordinary daily require- ments, we have to draw the material largely, and often solely, from the vegetable world. The resources for all these necessities must be —it cannot be other- wise—manifold in the extreme, and singularly varied, again, in different climatic zones, or under otherwise modified conditions. To render, therefore, these vegetable treasures accessible to our fullest benefit, not only locally, bat universally, must ever be an object of the deepest sig- nificance. Increasing requirements of the human races and augmented insight into the gifts of nature render now-a-days quite imperative the closest appli- ances of science to our resources and our daily wants. ‘¢ Omnis tellus optima ferat !’’ has become the motto of our Acclimatization Society ; or let me quote from Virgil: ‘* Non omnis fert omnia tellus, hic segetes, illic veniunt felicius uvae.”? Striving to unite the products of many lands, it suffices for us nowhere any longer to discriminate among these resources with merely crude notions; but it becomes necessary to fix accu- rately, also, as far as plants are concerned, their indus- trial value, trace their origin, test their adaptability, investigate their productiveness, durability, qualities; EUCALYPTUS TREES. 87 and to reduce all these inquiries to a sound basis by assigning to any species that position in the phyto- logic system by which it can be recognized by any one in any part of the globe. When the wants of phy- toglaphy are satisfied we have to call to aid chemistry, therapy, geology, culture, microscoptic investigation, pictorial art, and other branches of knowledge, to illustrate the respective value of the species, and the degree of its importance to any particular community. But in the discussions of one evening we can do no more than to touch succinctly only on a few of those vegetable objects most promising to our own colony for introduction, or most accessible among those indig- enous here; we may glance on them, also, with a view of learning how their elucidation might practi- cally be pursued, and the knowledge thus gained be diffused. To aid in the latter aim the phytologic sec- tion in the Industrial Museum is to be established ; of the requirements of this section I shall say a few passing words. The products and educts of the vegetable world are immense ; any display of them in the order of sci- ence, as intended for this museum, must carry with it a permanency of impressive instruction which any other modes of teaching, sure to be more ephemerous, fail to convey. But these efforts at diffusing knowl- edge should be seconded by means not inadequate to a great object, and should be worthy of the dignity and name of this rising country. Who would not like to see the best woods of every country stored up here in instructive samples—nearly a thousand kinds alone to choose from, as far as our continent is con- cerned ? Who would not wish to have here at hand 88 FOREST CULTURE AND for comparison the barks, exudations, grains, drugs, as raw material? Who would not desire to have ready access to a series of oils, whether pressed or distilled, whether from indigenous or imported plants ? Who would not have it in his power to compare the starches, dyes, casts of our luscious fruits, or the paper- material, tars, acids, coals of various kinds, fibers, alkaloids, and other medicinal preparations from various plants ? Why not place here a series of all the weapons and implements, traced accurately to their specific origin ? From such even in many instances we have learned, through keen observations of the first nomadic occu- pants of the soil, the use of many kinds of wood. All these objects, crude or prepared in the multitudinous way of their adaptations, ought to be accompanied, wherever necessary, by full explanatory designations, microscopic sections, and other means of elucidation ; while the periodic issue of descriptive indices, detail- ing still more copiously the derivation, uses, prepa- ration, and monetary value of such objects, will enable us to serve the full intentions for which this museum section has been formed. Lectures, however valuable, demonstrations, how- ever instructive, cannot alone form the path of exten- sive industrial education ; most minds, indeed, prefer to dwell tacitly on the objects of their choice, and muse quietly about the adaptability of any of them for operations or improvements in which they may be specially interested. How many inventions have received their first impulse from an institution such as we wish to form! Investigators, eminent in their profession, will doubt- EUCALYPTUS TREES. 89 less unite here, sooner or later, to bring to bear the sum of their knowledge, earned by a life-long toil, for giving vitality to that information which is to enter guidingly into the ordinary purposes of life. Thus, the happiness and prosperity of our fellow-men should be enhanced and exalted, and one of the loftiest ob- jects of our striving after truths be fulfilled. But the unassuming worker, conscious how far his own honest intentions advanced beyond his best re- sults, may well exclaim with Moore, in his soft melo- dies : ‘*Ah ! dreams too full of saddening truth, Those mansions o’er the main Are like the hopes I built in youth, AS sunny, and as vain!’’ Let us first take a glance at one of our innumerable forest glens. We see in the deep, rich detritus of rocks and fallen leaves, accumulated in past centu- ries some of the grandest features of the world’s veg- etation. Fern-trees* rise, at least exceptionally, to a height of eighty feet, higher, therefore, than any other parts of the globe, unless in Norfolk Island. Mammoth-Eucalypts abound, haying, in elevation, rivals only in the Californian Sequoia Wellingtonia ; we may, indeed, obtain, from one individual tree, planks enough to freight almost a ship of the tonnage of the Great Britain. Todea Ferns, now sought in trade, occur in these recesses, weighing, deprived of their fronds, almost a ton ; and, if the Xanthorrhceas do resemble, as popularly thought, our once spear- armed natives, then the Todea stems bear certainly as justly a resemblance to large black bears, as has been comically contended. The Fan Palms,+ though * Alsophila Australis, R. Br. t+ Corypha (Livistona) Australis, R. Br, 6 90 FOREST CULTURE AND F only occurring in East Gipps Land, within our terri- tory, rank among the most lofty of the globe, though also among the most hardy. All this, in our latitude, seem astounding — but more, it demonstrates, also, great riches; and I allude to it here only because I wished to show how a vegetation so prodigious points to the facilities of a natural, magnificent, industrial culture. The complex of vegetation is always an in- dicator of the soil and climate ; as such alone, plants deserve close study. In this instance it reveals un- told treasures, and yet, without phytographic knowl- edge they could never be understood, nor any intelli- gent appreciation of them be conveyed beyond the lo- eality. But can this grand picture of nature not be further embellished? Might not the true Tulip-tree, and the large Magnolias of the Mississippi and Himalaya, tower far over the Fern-trees of these valleys, and widely overshade our arborescent Labiatae ?* Might not the Andine Wax Palm, the Wettinias, the Gin- gerbread Palm, the Jubea, the Nicau, the northern Sabals, the Date, the Chinese Fan Palms, and Rhapis flabelliformis, be associated with our Palm in a glori- ous picture? Or, turning to still more utilitarian ob- jects, would not the Cork- tree, the Red Cedar, the Camphor-tree, the Walnuts and Hickories of North America, grow in these rich, humid dales, with very much greater celerity than even with all our tending in less genial spots? Could not, of four hundred co- niferous trees, and three hundred sorts of Oaks, nearly every one be naturalized in these ranges, and thus * Rhododendron arboreum attains a height of thirty feet, while Bh. Fal- coneri rises to fifty feet, with leaves half a yard long, deals, select tanning material, cork, pitch, turpentine, and many other products be gained far more readily there than elsewhere in Victoria, from sources ren- dered our own? Ought we not to test in these val- leys how far the Sisso, the Sal, the Teak, may prove hardy, and as important here as our Blackwood and Eucalypts abroad? Or shall I enumerate all the orna- mental woods for furniture, machinery, instruments, which form an endless array of genera, and species might be chosen as introducable, indeed, from most lands ; many of these, perhaps, to find an asylum inour mountains before—tike in St. Helena and other isolated spots—the remarkable and endemic trees are swept by man’s destructive agency from the face of the globe ?. Shall I speak in detail of the trees which yield dyes, and many medicinal substances ? If the Turkey Box-tree should continue the best for the wood-engraver, it would, in these valleys, assume its largest dimensions. I do not hesitate in affirming that out of ten thousand kinds of trees, which proba- bly constitute the forests of the globe, at least three thousand would live and thrive in these mountains of ours; many of them destined to live through cen- turies, perhaps, not a few through twice a thousand years, as great historic monuments. Within the railway-fences, hitherto in this respect unused, trees might be raised as materials for restoring, locally, the sleepers, posts, and rails, prior to their decay. The principles of physiology, the revelations of the micro- scope, aud the results of chemical tests guide us, not only in our selections of the trees, but often teach us, beforehand, the causes and reasons of durability or de- cay. 99 FOREST CULTURE AND The longevity of certain kinds of trees is marvel- ous. British Oaks are estimated to attain an age of two thousand years. The Walnut- tree, the Sweet Chestnut, and Black Mulberry-tree, live through many centuries, if cared for. Wellingtonias are found to be one thousand one hundred years old, Even the South Kuropean Elm, which, since the time of the Romans, has also made Britain its home, is known to stand six hundred years. Dr. Hooker regards the oldest Ce- dars yet existing, at Mount Lebanon, as two thousand five hundred years old. Historic records are extant of Orange-trees having attained an-age of seven hun- dred years, yet aged trees continue in full bearing, under favorable circumstances ; a single tree is said to have yielded, in a harvest, twenty thousand oran- ges. Individual Olive-trees are also supposed to have existed ever since the Christian era. The Eu- ropean Cypress, the British Yew, the Ginkgo, and the Kauri afford other remarkable instances of longevity. The Date-Palm gratefully bears its rich crop of fruit for two hundred years. The Dragon-tree of Orotava is another familiar example of extraordinary longevi- ty. Here, in Victoria, the native Beech, and several Kucalypts are veritable patriarchs of the forests, and of a far more venerable age than is generally supposed. So much for the lasting of some of our work, to en- courage planting operations. If Cook, who stepped with the pride of an explorer on these shores precisely a century ago, could view once more the scene of his discoveries, he would be charmed by the sight of noble cities, and the happy aspect of rural industry; but he would turn his eyes in dismay from the desolation and aridity which a EUCALYPTUS TREES. 93 merciless sacrifice of the native forests has already so sadly brought about—a sacrifice arising from an utter absence of all thoughts for the future. Ever since an- tiquity this work of forest destruction has gone on in every country, until, sooner or later, such reckless improvidence has been overtaken by a resentful Ne- mesis, in hindering the progress of national prosper- ity, and the comfort of whole communities. After lengthened periods of toil there partially arose, but partially only, what an early guardianship might have readily retained for most countries. When I largely shared in the labors of establishing, for Aus- tralian trees, a reputation abroad, I certainly did, also, entertain a hope to awaken here, likewise, a univer- sal interest in the dissemination of an almost endless number of trees from the colder and subtropic girdles of the whole globe. (Vide Phil. Inst., 1858, pp. 93 to 109.) A few scattered trees are of no national mo- ment. We want the massive upgrowth of the Pitch- pines, just as on the Pine barrens of the United States; we want whole forests of the Deal Pines, both cis and transatlantic ; we want over all-our mountains the Silver Fir, already the charm of the ancients; we want the Australian Red Cedar, scarcely any longer existing in its native haunts; we want the Yarrah- tree, forest-like, as in West Australia; we want the various elastic Ash-trees, which are so easily raised ; we want, indeed, no end of other trees, because the greater part of Victoria is ill- wooded ; because our climate is hot and dry ; because extensive coal layers we have not yet found. What practical bearing can all the teaching in this hall, all the display in this mu- seum, really exercise, if, finally, the artisan finds him- 94 FOREST CULTURE AND self without an adequate and inexpensive material for his work? Annually, the timber of one hundred and fifty thousand acres is cut away in the United States to supply the want for railway-sleepers alone. The annual expenditure there in wood, for railway build- ings and ears, is £7,600,000. In a single year the lo- comotives of the United States consume £11,200,000 of wood. The whole wood industries of the United States represent, now, an annual expenditure of one hundred million sterling. There, forty thousand arti- sans are engaged alone in woodwork. Here, in Vic- toria, notwithstanding the activity of many saw-mills, we imported, only last year, timber to the value of £270,572 for our own use. As these remarks may find publicity, I have appended further notes on tim- ber-trees, eminently desirable for massive introduc- tion, but do not wish to exhaust by details the pa- tience of this audience. But it would be vain to expect that Europe and America will continue forever to furnish for us their timber. The constantly-increasing population and the augmented requirements of advancing industries will render no longer yonder woods accessible also to us before the century passes, because even in those north- ern countries the timber supply will then barely sat- _isfy local wants. An idea may be formed of forest value when we enter on some calculations of the supply of timber or other products available from one of our largest Eu- calyptus-trees. Suppose one of the colossal Eucalyp- tus amygdalina at the Black Spur was felled, and its total height ascertained to be four hundred and eighty feet, its circumference toward the base of the stem EUCALYPTUS TREES. 95 eighty-one feet, its lower diameter to be twenty-six feet, and at the height of three hundred feet its diam- eter six feet. Suppose ovcy half the available wood was cut into planks of twelve inches width, we would get, in the terms of the timber trade, four hundred and twenty-six thousand seven hundred and twenty superficial feet at one inch thickness, sufficient to cover nine and three fourths acres. Thesame bulk of wood cut into railway-sleepers, six feet by six inches by eight inches, would yield in number seventeen thou- sand seven hundred and eighty. Not less than « length of twenty-three miles of three-rail fencing, including the necessary posts, could be constructed. It would require a ship of about one thousand tonnage to convey the timber and additional firewood of half the tree; and six hundred and sixty-six drayloads at one and one half tons would thus be formed to remove half the wood. The essential oil obtainable from the foliage of the whole tree may be estimated at thirty- one pounds; the charcoal, suppose there was no loss of wood, seventeen thousand nine hundred and fifty bushels ; the crude vinegar, two hundred and twenty: seven thousand two hundred and sixty-nine gallons ; the wood-tar, thirty-one thousand one hundred and fifty gallons ; the potash, two tons eleven hundred weight. But how many centuries elapsed before un- disturbed nature could build up by the subtle process- es of vitality these huge and wondrous structures ! Some feelings of veneration and reverence should also be evinced toward the native vegetation, where it displays its rarest and grandest forms. It is la- mentable that in all Australia scarcely a single spot 96 FOREST CULTURE AND has been secured* for preserving some relics of its most ancient trees to convey to posterity an idea of the original features of our primeval forests. Though it may appear foreign to my subject, I cannot with- hold also on this occasion an imploring word, more particularly when I notice land - proprietors in East Australia to hold not even sacred a single native Banyan-tree, which required centuries for building its expansive dome and its hundreds of columnar pil- lars ; nor to allow a single Cyrtosia Orchid to continue with its stem trailing to the length of thirty feet, and to remain with its thousands of large, fragrant blos- soms, the pride of the forest. That very Cyrtosia vives a clue to the affinity and structure of other plants not nearer to us than Java; and its destruction, with probably that of many others which the naturalist forever is now prevented to dissect, or the artist to delineate, or the museum custodian to preserve, will be a loss to systematic natural history, also, forever. Again, in a spirit of Vandalism, a Fan-Palm, after a hundred years’ growth, is no longer allowed to raise its slender stem and lofty crown in our own forests of Gipps Land, simply because curiosity is prompted to obtain a dishful of Palm-Cabbage at the sacrifice of a century’s growth. Let it be remembered that the uncivilized inhabit- ants of many a tropical country know how to respect the original and not always restorable gifts of a boun- tiful Providence. They will invaribly climb the Palm- * On the River Hastings some magnificent dales have been lately protected by the Government of New South Wales for the sake of the incomparably beautiful and grand native vegetation, an example deserving extensive imi- tation. The forests of the Bunya Araucaria, occupying only a limited nati: Yal area, are also secured against intrusion by the Government, = EUCALYPTUS TREES. 97 tree to obtain its nuts or to plait its leaves; so, also a resident in our forests might obtain from a grove of our hardy Palms, if still any are left in this land of Canaan, an annual income by harvesting the seeds as one of the most costly articles of horticultural export. Speaking of Palms, let me observe that the tall Wax Palm of New Granada (Ceroxlyon andicola) extends almost to the snow-line. It is needless to add that we might grow this magnificent product of andine vegetation in many localities of the country of our own adoption. Each stem yields annually about twenty-five pounds of a waxy, resinous coat- ing, which when melted together with tallow forms an exquisite composition for candles. Chamerops Fortunei, a Chinese Fan Palm of considerable height, is here hardy, like in South Europe; so would be, prob- ably, the Gingerbread Palm (Hyphaene Thebaica). Of the value of some Palms we may form an appreci- ation when we reflect that Elais Guineensis, which at the end of this century should be productive in Queensland and North-west Australia, yields from the fleshy outer portion of its nut the commercially famed Palm-oil, prepared much in the manner of Olive-oil; the value of this African Palm-oil import- ed in 1861 into England was two millions sterling, the demand for it for soap manufacture, and railway engines and carriages, being enormous.* The Chilean Jubaea or Coquito Palm grows spontaneously as far south as the latitude of Swan Hill, and is rich ina melliginous sap.t A Date Palm planted now would still be in full bearing two hundred years hence. *'The import of Palm-oil into Britain during 1868 was nearly a million ewt. (960.059 cwt.). + Each tree yields ninety gallons of sap at a time, used for the preparation of palm-honey. #6 98 FOREST CULTURE AND When hopeful illusion steps beyond the stern reali- ties of the day, it cannot suppress a desire that en- lightened statesmanship will always wisely foresee the absolute requirements of future generations. The colonist who lives in enjoyment of his property near the ranges and sees a flourishing family growing up around him, asks ominously what will be the aspect of these forests at the end of the century, if the pres- ent work of demolition continues to go on? He feels that though the forests not solely bring us the rain, through forests only a comparatively arid country can have the full advantage of its showers, as bitter ex- perience has taught generation after generation since Julius Cesar’s time. The colonist reflects with appre- hension that while no year nor day, when passed into eternity, can be regained, no provision whatever is made for the coming population, in whose welfare, perhaps as the head of a family, and perhaps even bearing political responsibility, he is interested. He would gladly co-operate in the labors of a local Forest Board, just like members of Road Boards and Shire Councils enter cheerfully on the special duties alloted to their administration. His local experience would dictate the rules under which in each district the tim- ber and other products of the forest could be most lucratively utilized without desolation for the future ; and he would be best able to judge, and to seek advice how the yield of the forest could be advantageously maintained, and its riches methodically be increased. All this will weigh more heavily on bis mind when he is cognizant that even in Middle Europe, in countries so well provided with coals, and of a much cooler clime than ours, the extent of the forests is kept scru- EUCALYPTUS TREES. 99 pulously intact, and their regular yield remains secur- ed from year to year and from century to century. He would rest satisfied if only the trifling revenue of the forests could be applied by him and his neigh- bors to an inexpensive restoration of the woods con- sumed. He would delight in seeing the leading for- eign timber trees disseminated with our own Red Gum-tree, Red Cedars, Yarrahs or Blackwoods, not by hundreds but in time to come by millions, well aware that the next generations may either censure reproachfully the shortcomings of their ancestors, or may point gratefully to the results of an earnest and well-sustained foresight of future wants. As a first step, at least in each district a few square miles should be secured for subsequent forest nurseries in the best localities, commanding irrigation by gravitation, and ready access also, before it is too late, and all such spots are permanently alienated from the Crown. Physical science must yet largely be called to our experimental aid before we can dispel the many crude notions in reference to the effect of forest vegetation on climate in allits details. It is thusastartling fact, as far as experiments under my guidance hitherto could elucidate the subject, that on a sunny day the leaves of our common Eucalypts and Casuarinas exhale a quantity of water several times, or even many times, larger than those of the ordinary or South European Elm, English Oak, or Black Poplar ; while from the foliage of our native Silver Wattle only half, or even less than half, the quantity of water is evaporated than from the Poplar or Oak. This degree of exhalation, so different in various trees, depends on the number, position, and size of 100 FOREST CULTURE AND their stomata, and stands in immediate correlation to the power of absorption of moisture. Besides, if the evaporation of Eucalyptus-trees is so enormous during heat, and if the often horizontal. roots of these trees thus render soil around them very dry, in consequence of the copious conveyance of moisture to the air, they simultaneously, by the rapidity of their evapo- ration in converting aqueous to gaseous liquid, or water into vapor, cause alowering of the temperature most important in our climate during the months of extreme heat, while their capability of absorbing moisture during rain or from humid air must be com- mensurately great. It is beyond the scope of this address to dwell fur- ther on facts like these ; but I was anxious to demon- strate by a mere example how much we have yet to learn by patient research before we will have recog- nized in all its details the important part which forest vegetation plays in the great economy of nature. Concerning forest culture, I would very briefly allude to an instance showing how, by the teachings of natu- ral science and thoughtful circumspection, the rewards of industrial pursuits may become surprisingly aug- mented. In the uplands of the Madras Presidency, an ingenious method has been adopted in gathering the harvest of Cinchona-bark, in recent very extensive plantations, by removing it in strips without destroy- ing the cambium layer. Then, by applying moss to the denuded part of the stem, not only is the remov- ed portion of the bark renewed within a year, to the thickness of three years’ growth, but the protection of the tender bark against the influence of light and air allows nearly all the quinine and other alkaloids EUCALYPTUS TREES. 101 to remain retained in the cortical layer without de- composition, while in the ordinary three years’ bark half or more of these principles is lost. Facts like these lead us to appreciate the important bearings of the natural sciences on all branches of in- dustry ; but they warn us, also, to pause before we give our further consent to the unlimited and reckless demolition of our most accessible forest lands, on the maintenance of which so many of our industries de- pend. Just as it required, even under undisturbed favor- able influences, centuries before our forest riches were developed to their pristine grandeur, so it will need, in the ordinary laws of nature, at least an equal lengthened period before we can see towering up again the sylvan colosses, which eminently contributed to the fame of the natural history of this land—if, indeed, the altered physical condition of the country will ren- der the restoration of the treeson a grand scale possi- ble at all. Has science drawn in vain its isothermal girdles around the globe, or has the searching eye of the philosopher in vain penetrated geologic structure, or in vain the exploring phytographer circumscribed the forms ? Well do we know what and where to choose; botanie science steps in to define the objects of our choice, which other branches of learning teach us to locate and rear. The Tea would as thriftly luxuriate in our wooded valleys as in its native haunts at Assam, and yield a harvest far more prolific than away from the ranges. Indeed, we may well foresee that many forest slopes will be deéted in endless rows with the bushes of the 102 FOREST CULTURE AND Tea, precisely as our drier ridges are verdant with the vine. Erythroxylon-Coco, the wondrous stimulating plant of Peru, should be raised in the mildest and most sheltered forest glens, where the stillness of the air excludes the possibility of cutting frosts. Hop, cultivated as a leading industry in Tasmania since a quarter of a century, will also take a prominent place _ on the brooks of our mountains, Peru-bark trees of various kinds should in spots so favored be subjected to culture trials. How easily could any swampy de- pression, not otherwise readily of value, be rendered productive by allowing plants of the handsome New Zealand flax lily quietly to spread as a source for fu- ture wealth. How far the demand of material for industrial purposes may quickly exceed the supply may be strikingly exemplified by the fact that hun- dreds of vessels are exclusively employed for bringing the Esparto grass (not superior to several of our most frequent sedges) from Spain to England, to augment the supply of rags for the endless increasing require- ments of the paper-mills. Conversion of manifold material, even saw-dust, into paper, is carried on to a vast extent ; a multitude of samples placed here be- fore you will help to explain how wide the scope for paper material may extend. But the factories want material, not only cheap, but readily convertible, and adapted to particular working. In all these selections, a few glances through the microscope, and the result of a few chemical reactions taught in this hall, may at once advise the artisan in his choice. Phytologic inquiry is further to teach us rationally the nature of maladies to which plants aressubject, EUCALYPTUS TREES. 1038 just as it discloses even the sources of many of the most terrific and ravaging diseases of which the human frame is the victim. The microscope, that marvelous tool for discovery, has become, also, the guardian of many an industry. The processes of morbid growth, or the development and diffusion of the minute organism, between which descriptive bota- ny knows how to discriminate, are thus traced out as the subtle and insidious causes which at times involve losses that count by hundreds of thousands in a single year, even in our yet small communities. But while the microscope discloses the form and development of the various minute organisms which cause, through the countless numbers of individuals, at times the temporary ruin of many branches of rural industry, it leaves us not helpless in ourinsight how to vanquish the invaders. In correctly estimating the limits of the specific forms, calling forth or concomitant with some of the saddest human maladies, phytography shares in the noble aim of alleviating human suffer- ings, or restoring health and prolonging vital exist- ence. But it comes most prominently within the scope of this Industrial Museum to delineate for the agricul- tural and forest section, in explanatory plates, the morbid processes under which crops and timber may succumb, and an industry be paralyzed or a country be verily brought to famine ; it devolves on us, also, simultaneously to explain the effect of remedial agents, such as sound reasoning from inductive science sug- gests or confirms. To array samples of all field products which our genial clime allows us to raise is doubtless the object of an instructive institution, 104 _ FOREST CULTURE AND more particularly in a young country, to which im- migration streams mainly from a colder zone; but this display of increased capabilities, and of more varied products of a mostly winterless land, may entice the inexperienced to new operations without guarding him against failures. I should even like to see tables of calculations in this Museum, from which could be learned the yield and value of any crop with- in a defined acreage and from a soil chemically exam- ined; but from this I would regard inseparable a close calculation of the costs under which each particular crop can only be raised. Unfortunately, surprising data are often furnished concerning the productive- ness of new plants of culture ; but it is as frequently forgotten that the large yield is, as a rule, dependent on an expenditure commensurately large. — Among the most powerful means for fostering phy- tologic knowledge for local instructive purposes, that of forming collections of the plants themselves remains one of the foremost. No school of any great preten- sion should be without a local collection of museum plants, nor should any mechanics’ institute be without such. It serves as a means of reference most faith- fully; it need not be a source of expenditure; it might be gathered as an object of recreation; it may add even to the world’s knowledge. Through the transmission of numbered duplicate sets of plants to my office the accurate naming may be secured.* From such a normal collection in each district the inhabit- * Parcels of plants pressed and dried, and afterward closely packed, can be inexpensively forwarded by post, and, by the excellence of the Australian postal arrangements, can be sent from distant stations of the interior, from whence botanical specimens of any kind, for ascertaining the nature and range of the species, are most aeceptable ; while full in‘ormation on such material will at once be rendered. ——— ee EUCALYPTUS TREES. 105 ant may learn to discriminate at once with exactness between the different timber-trees, the grasses, the plants worthy of ornamental culture, or any others possessing industrial or cultural interest. The saw- yer, as well as the trader in timber, may learn how many of the one hundred and forty Australian Eu- calypts occur within his reach—how phytography designates each of them by a specific appellation ac- knowledged all over the globe. Phytologic inquiry, aided by collateral sciences, will disclose to him before- hand the rules for obtaining the wood at the best sea- sons, for selecting it for special purposes, for securing the best preservation. Phyto-chemistry will explain to him what average percentage of potash, oils, tar, vinegar, alcohol, tannic acid, ete., may be obtained under ordinary circumstances from each. He will _understand, for instance, that the so-called Red Gum- tree of Victoria, the one so famed for the durability of its wood and for the peculiar medicinal astringency of its gum-resin, is widely different from the tree of that vernacular named in Western Australia ; that it is wanting in Tasmania, yet that it has an extensive geographic range over the interior of our continent ; and that thus the experiences gained on the products of this particular species of tree by himself or others are widely applicable elsewhere. Through collections of these kinds the thoughtful colonist may have his attention directed to vegetable objects of great value in his own locality, of the existence of which he might otherwise not readily become aware. New trades may spring up, new exports may be initiated, new local factories be established. Phytographic works on Australian plants, now extant in many vyol- 106 FOREST CULTURE AND umes, can readily be attached and rendered explana- tory of such collections. A prize held out by the patrons of any school might stimulate the juvenile gatherer of plants to increased exertions ; his youth- ful mind will be trained to observation and reflection and the faculties of a loftier understanding will be raised. To the adult also, and particularly often to the invalid, new sources of enjoyment may thus be dis- closed. What formerly was passed by unregarded will have a meaning; every blade over which he stepped thoughtlessly before will have a new inter- est; and even what he might have admired will gain additional charm ; but while penetrating wonders he never dreampt of before he ought piously to ask who called them forth ? ‘Bright flowers shall bloom wherever we roam, A voice Divine shall talk in each stream ; The stars shall look like worlds of love, And this earth shall be one beautiful dream.’’ Thos. Moore's Irish Melodies. What one single plant may do for the human race is perhaps best exemplified by the Cotton-plant. The Southern States of North America sent to England in 1860 nearly half a million tons of cotton (453,522 tons), by which means, in Britain alone, employment was given to about a million of people engaged in indus- tries of this fabric, producing cotton goods to the value of £121,364,458. From rice, which like cotton will mature its crop in some of the warmer parts of Victoria,* sustenance is obtained for a greater num- ber of human beings than from any other plant. In * Particularly if the hardy mountain rice of China and Japan is chosen, which required no irrigation. The ordinary rice has been grown ap far north as Lombardy, EUCALYPTUS TREES. 107 -the greater part of the Australian continent, where- ever water supply could be commanded, the rice would luxuriate. I found it wild in Arnheim’s Land in 1855. Of sugar-cane the hardier varieties may within Victoria succeed in East Gipps Land and other warmer spots. Great Britain imported in 1863 not less than five hundred and eighty-six thousand six hundred tons.* Even our young colony import- ed last year to the value of nearly a million sterling (£948,329). Think of the commerce in other vegeta- ble products, such as require in different places our local fostering care in order to add still more to our resources. Of various tobaccos we imported into Victoria in 1869 (deducting exports) to the value of £83,788 ; of wine, £84,687; of cereals, £781,250; of paper, £123,158. I will not enter on any remarks about sugar-beet, on which one of our fellow-colonists has lately compiled an excellent treatise. Of tea, in 1865, Britain required for home consumption eighty- five millions of lbs.t What a prospect for tea growth in Victoria, where this bush cares neither for the scorching heat of the Summer nor for the night-frosts of our lower regions ; whereas, in the forest glens of our country, Tasmania, and elsewhere, the Tea-bush would yield most prolific harvests. Test plantations for manifold new cultures were recommended by me years ago in one of my official reports to the Legisla- *«The total import of sugar into Britain was, during 1868, six hundred and twenty-six thousand three hundred and one tons ; during 1869, six hundred - and five thousend one hundred and twenty-nine tons.” + The total import of tea into Britain was— Dye SSbi sess Sa cekh ducickts coke slcisly cca cece = siuceeiew take. LOL 156, Tiaibs: Ms MESES areretary atereiravaarotepe ie: siayetia' sales sia! cisiapeiie\ auisja.eve) oo @iciewpe spara/sisie 139,610,044 ‘* cont) CUTE aE Bae Pear ae Gels Ap Se anos Soeee ARABIC Ret Coase 128,028,726 ‘* O9 TASH SEHR BA IESE SEEe Hee S Seidtonhenc bonnentoar 154,845,863 * i Lo Pies GR Ry Mi oats allie oS ABR BERLE OME MSS ce) 108 FOREST CULTURE AND ture; one plantation for the desert, one for subalpine regions, one for the deep valleys of the woodlands. The two latter might be in close vicinity at the Black Spur, and thus within the reach of ready traffic. The outlay in each case would be modest indeed. What an endless number of new industrial plants might thus be brought together within a few hours’ drive of the city, under all the advantages of rich soil, shelter, and irrigation! What an attractive collection for the intelligent and studious might thus be per- manently formed. I will not weary this audience by giving a long array of names of any plants resisting alpine Winters, such asin our snow-clad higher mountains they would have to endure, We know that the Apple will live where even the hardy Pear will succumb ; both will still thrive on our alpine plateaus. The Larch, strug- gling in vain with the dry heat of our open lowlands, would be a tree of comparatively rapid growth near alpine heights. The Birch, in Greenland, the only tree in Italy ascending to six thousand feet, in Rus- sia the most universal, and there yielding for famed tanning processes its valued bark, is living—to quote the forcible remarks of an elegant writer—‘ is living on the bleak mountain sides from which the sturdy Oak shrinks with dismay.’? Add to it, if you like, the Paper- Birch, and a host of arctic, andine, and other alpine trees and bushes. Disseminate the Straw- berries of the countries of our childhood, naturalize the Blackberry of northern forest moors. The Ameri-_ can Cranberry-bush (Vaccinium macrocarpum), with its large fruits, is said to have yielded on boggy mead- ows, such as occupy a large terrain of the Australian EUCALYPTUS TREES. 109 Alps, fully one hundred bushels on one acre in a year, worth so many dollars. If once established, such a plant would gradually spread on its own account for the benefit of future highland inhabitants. The Su- gar Maple would seek these cold heights, to be tapped when the Winter snow melts. For half a century it will yield its saccharine sap, equal to several pounds of sugar annually. Let us translocate ourselves now for a moment to our desert tracts, changed as they will likely be many years hence, when the waters of the Murray River, in their unceasing flow from snowy sources, will be thrown over the back plains, and no longer run en- tirely into the ocean, unutilized for husbandry. The lagoons may then be lined, and the fertile depres- sions be studded with the Date Palm ; Fig-trees, like in Egypt planted by the hundreds of thousands to in- crease and retain the rain, will then also have ame- liorated here the clime; or the White Mulberry-tree will be extensively extant then instead of the Mallee scrub ; not to speak of the Vine, in endless variety, nor to allude to a copious culture of Cotton in those regions. To Fig-trees and Mulberry- trees I refer more particularly, because it must be always in the first instance the object to raise in masses those utili- tarian plants which can be multiplied with the ut- most ease, and without any special skill, locally, and which, moreover, as in this case, would resist the dry heat of our desert clime. When recommending such . 2 culture for industrial pursuits, it is not the aim to plant by the thousand, but by the million. Remem- ber, also, that a variety of the Morus Alba occurs in Affghanistan, with a delicious fruit ; and that the im- 110 “ FOREST CULTURE AND portation of Figs into Britain alone, from countries in climate alike to large tracts of Victoria, has been of late years about one thousand tons annually. What the Fig-tree has effected for rainless tracts of Egypt is now on historic record. I have spoken of horticultural industries as not al- together foreign to this institution—indeed, as repre- senting a rising branch of commerce. Were I to en- ter on details of this subject the pages of this address might swell toa volume. But this I would mention, that in our young country the manifold facilities for rearing exotic plants in specially selected and adapted localities could only as yet receive imperfect consid- eration. We have, however, ample opportunities of selecting genial spots for the growth of such singular curiosities as the Flytrap plant (Dionzea Muscipula), and the Pitcher-plants (Sarracenias) of the bogs and swamps of the pine barrens and savannahs of Caroli- na, if we proceed to moory portions of our springy forest land. There is no telling, too, whether the Pitcher-plants of Khasya and China (species of Ne- penthes) could not readily be grownand multiplied in similar localities, and the hardier of grand Epiphytes among the orchids, such as the subalpine Oncidium Warezewickyi, of Central America, which might. readily be reared in our glens by horticultural enter- prise, together with all the hardier Palms which mod- ern taste has so well adopted for the,ready decoration of dwelling-rooms. Such plants as the Beaucarnea recurvata of Mexico, . with its five thousand flowers in a single panicle, and the hardier Vellozias, from the bare mountain regions of Brazil, would endure our open air; while the in- #HUCALYPTUS TREES. 11i humerable South African Heaths, Stapeliz, the Me- sembryanthema, Pelargonia, lily-like plants, and many others, once the pride of European conservatories, can, with increased sea traffic, now gradually be in- troduced as beautifnl objects of trade into this coun- try, where they need no glass protection. It leads too far to speak of the still more readily accessible numerous showy plants of South-west Australia, but among which, as a mere instance, the gorgeous Ani- gozanthi, the lovely Stylidia, the gay Banksiz, and the fragrant Boronias may be mentioned. Before leaving this topic, I may remind you that many esculent plants of foreign countries are desery- ing yet of test culture, and, perhaps, general adop- tion in this country. The Dolichos sesquipedalis, of South American, is a bean, cultivated in France on account of its tender pod. The Arracha esculenta, an umbellate from the cooler mountains of Central Ameri- ca, yields there, for universal use, its edible root. The climbing Chocho, of West India (Sechium edule), proved hardy in Madeira, and furnishes a root and fruit both palatable and wholesome. Vigna subter- ranea is the Earth Nut of Natal. The Taro of Tahiti (Calocasi macrorrhiza), though perfectly enduring our lowland clime, is, as yet, with allied species, but lit- tle cultivated — neither the Soja of Japan (Glycine Soja), nor the Caper of the Mediterranean. The Sea- kales (Crambe Maritima and C. Tatarica) might be naturalized on our sandy shores. Regarding fibres, much yet requires to be effected by capitalists and cultivators, to turn such plants as the Grasscloth shrub, which I distributed for upward of a dozen years, to commercial importance for facto- 112 FOREST CULTURE AND ries. A kind of Jute (Corchorus olitorius) succeeds as far north as the Mediterranean, and grows wild with the Sun Hemp (Crotalaria juncea ) in tropical Australia; the latter plant comes naturally almost to the boundaries of our colony. A Melbourne rope- factory offers £36 for the ton of New Zealand Flax, and can consume six tons per week. Hemp, used ‘ since antiquity, produces, along with its fibre, the Hypnotic Churras. England imported, in 1858, Hemp, to the value of more than £1,000,000.* This may suffice to indicate new resources in this direction. For Sumach our country offers, in many places, the precise conditions for its successful growth, as con- firmed by actual tests. Tannic substances, of which the indigenous’ supply is abundant and manifold, would assume still greater commercial importance by simple processes of reducing them to a concentrated form. How on any forest river might not the Fil- bert-tree be naturalized ; on precipitous places, among rocks, it would form a useful jungle, furnishing, be- sides, its nuts, the material for fishing-rods, hoops, charcoal crayons, and other purposes. From a single forest at Barcelona sixty thousand bushels are obtain- ed ina year. (For these and many other data brought before you in this lecture you may refer further, most conveniently, to a posthumous work of the great Pro- fessor Lindley, Treasury of Botany, edited by Mr. Th. Moore, with the aid of able contributors.) Even the Loquat would attain in our forest glens the size of a fair, or even large tree. * The import of Hemp and Jute into Britain during 1868 was three mil- lion two hundred and eighty-one thousand two hundred and sixty-eight hundred weight; during 1869, three million five hundred and fifty-one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight hundred weight.. The undressed Hemp imported in 1868 was valued at £2,022,419. EUCALYPTUS TREES, 113 Osiers and other willows used for basket-work, for charcoal, or for the preparation of salicine, might line any river banks, quite as much for the sake of shade and consolidation of the soil as for their direct utili- tarian properties. In the forest ranges any dense line of Willows and Poplars will help to check the spread of the dreadful conflagrations in which so much of the best timber is lost, and through which the tempera- ture of the country is for days heightened to an intol- erable degree far beyond the scenes of devastation, while injuries are inflicted far and wide to the labors in the garden or the field. In the most arid deserts the medicinal Aloes might readily be established, to yield bya simple process the drug of commerce. Gourds of half a hundred weight have been obtained in Victoria, and show what the plants of the Melon tribe might do here, like in South Africa, for eligible spots in the desert land. Among the trees for those arid tracts, the glorious Grevillea robusta, with its in- numerable trusses of fiery red, and its splendid wood for staves, is only one of the very many desirable ; just as in the oases the Carob-tree will live without water, uninjured, because its deeply-penetrating roots render it fit toresist any drought. Butit may besaid that much that I instance is well known and well recorded—so, doubtless, it is, in the abstract—but va- riety requires to be distinguished from variety, spe- cies from species, and their geography, internal struc- ture and components need carefully to be set forth, before any industry relating to plants can be raised on sound ground in proper localities, and be brought to its best fruitfulness, ; Even a pond, a streamlet — how, with intelligent 7 114 FOREST CULTURE AND foresight, may it be utilized and rendered lucrative tod industry! The Water Nuts,* naturally distributed through large tracts of Europe and Asia, afford at Cashmere alone, for five months in the year, a nutri- tious and palatable article of food for thirty thousand people. Can the Menyanthes not be made a native here—one of the loveliest of water-plants, one of the best of tonics ? The true Bamboo, which I first prov- ed hardy here, used for no end of purposes by the ingenious Chinese—can we not plant it here at each dwelling, at each stream, a grateful yielder to indus- trial wants, not requiring itself any care—an object destined to embellish whole landscapes? An Arun- dinaria Bamboo from Nepal (A. falcata) proved very tall and quite hardy, even in Britain; and yet taller is the Mississippi Arundinaria (A. macrosperma) — indeed, rivaling in height the gigantic Chinese or Indian Bamboo. Imagine how there might arise on the bold rocky declivities of the Grampians the colossal columns of the Cereus giganteus of the extra-tropic Colorado regions — huge candelabras of vegetable structure, which would pierce the roof of our museum hall if planted on the floor, and would be as expansive in width as the pedestal of the monument consecrated to our unfortunate explorers. Picture to yourselves an Echinocactus Visnago of New Mexico, lodged in the wide chasm of our Pyrenees, one of these mon- sters weighing a ton, and expanding into a length of nine feet, with a diameter of three feet.- Think of such plants mingled with the Canarian Dragon-tree, one of which is supposed to have lived from our * Several species of Trapa. « Sl EUCALYPTUS TREES, 114 Redeemer’s time to this age, because four centuries effected on these Giant Lilies but little change. Welwitchia here, like in rainless Damaraland, might grow in our desert sands as one of the most wonder- ful of plants, its only pair of leaves being cotyledo- nous and lasting well- nigh through a century. Or associate in your ideas with these one of the medici- nal Tree Aloes of Namaqua, or one of the Poison Eu- phorbias, never requiring pluvial showers (Euphorbia grandidens), some as high as a good-sized two-storied dwelling-house ; transfer to them also Cereus senilis, thirty feet high, which, with all its attempts to look venerable, only suceeds to be grotesque ; add to these extraordinary forms such Lily-trees as the Fourcroya longeva, with a stem of forty feet and an inflorescence of thirty feet, whereas Agave Americana, Agave Mexicana and allied species, while they quietly pass through the comparatively short space of time allotted to their existence, weave in the beautiful internal economy of their huge leaves the threads which are to yield the tenacious Pita-cords, so much in quest for the rope-bridges of Central America. Some of the Echinocacti extend as far south as Buenos Ayres and Mendoza, and would introduce into many arid tracts of Victoria, together with the almost numberless succulents of South Africa, a great ornamental attraction, which horticultural enterprise might turn to lucrative account; just like our native showy plants will become objects of far higher com- mercial importance than hitherto has been attach- ed to them. The columns of Cereus Peruvianus rise sometimes to half a hundred feet; some Cactese are in reality the vegetable fountains of the desert. Such 116 FOREST CULTURE AND plants as Echinocactus platyceras, with its fifty thou- sand thorns and sete, should be cultivated in our open grounds for horticultural trade, whereas the Cochineal Cacti (Opuntia Tuna, O. coccinellifera and a few other species), might well be still further distributed here, in order that food may be available for the cochineal insects when other circumstances in Australia will ~ - become favorable for the local production of this cost- ly dye. These are a few of many instances which might be adduced to demonstrate how the landscape pictures of Victoria might be embellished in another century, and new means of gain be obtained from additional manifold resources. But while your thoughts are carried to other zones and distant lands, let us not lose sight of the reason for which we assembled, namely, to deal with utilita- rian objects and the application of science thereon. All organic structures, however, whether giants or pigmies, whether showy or inconspicuous, have their allotted functions to fulfill in nature, are destined to contribute to our wants, are endowed with their spe- cial properties, are heralding the greatness of the Cre- ° ator. But here in this hall I would like to see dis- played by pictorial art the most majestic forms in nature, were it only to delineate for the studious the physiognomy of foreign lands, irrespective of any known industrial value of the objects thus sketched. The painter’s art in choosing from nature does impress us most lastingly with the value and grandeur of its treasures. Each plant, as it were, has a history of discovery of its own ; who would not like to trace it ? And this again brings us face to face with those who EUCALYPTUS TREES. nL ly carried before us the torchof scientific inquiry into the dark recesses of mystery, and shed a flood of light on perhaps long-concealed magnificence and beauty. The youth, aroused to the sublime feeling of wishing at least to follow great men in independent research- es, may be animated if in a hall like this each divis- ion were ornamented with the portraits of the fore- most of those discoverers who through ages advanced knowedge to the standard of the present day. _ ** Deeds of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, Am. w And departing leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time. : “‘ Though oft depressed and lonely, Our fears are laid aside, i If we remember only ‘ Such also lived and died, ;, % *¢Learn from the grand old masters, t Or from the bard sublime, “Nene aa Whose distant footsteps echo ; Through the corridor of time.’’ LONGFELLOW. Discovery proceeds step by step. Commenced by original thinkers, enlarged by sedulous experimenters, fostered by the thoughtful portion of the community, and by any administration of high views, it is util- ized by well-directed enterprise, and marches onward steadily in its progress. Guttenberg and his collabo- rators gave us the printing art, which has done more to enlighten the world than all other mechanisms taken together; and though four centuries have alter- ed much in the speed and cost of producing prints, they haye not materially changed the forms of this glorious art, as the beautifully-decorated pages of the earliest printed Bibles testify. Thus we have reason to be yet daily grateful for this invaluable gain from the genius of days long passed, 118 “ FOREST CULTURE AND Thoughtless criticism ig but too often impatient or success, and demands results premature and unreason- able. Incompetent and perversive censure may even carry the sway of public opinion—misleading, and misled ; and, still worse, organized tactics may apply themselves, for sinister purposes of their own, to dis- turb the quiet work of the discoverer, mar the results of his labors, or paralyze the vitality of research, not understanding, or not wishing to understand, its di- rection or its object. And yet, should we have no faith in science, wheth- er it reveals to us the minutest organisms in a perfec- tion unalterable, * or the grandest doctrines of truth, sure ever to bear on human happiness and the peace of our soul; should we have no faith in science, whether it unravels the metallic treasures of the depth and the coals of the forests of bygone ages, or by eter- nal laws permits us to trace the orbits of endless ce- lestial worlds through space ; no faith, if it allows us through spectroscopic marvels to count unerringly the billions of oscillations of each ray of dispersed light within a second; or if it discloses the chemism of distant worlds, and therewith an applicability of re- search, both tellural and sidereal, ever endless and inexhaustible. Science, as the exponent of God-like * As an instance of the marvelous complexity, and yet exquisite perfection of the minutest creatures, the organ of vision in insects may be adduced. Most careful observers have ascertained that the eyes of very many insects are compound, contain numerous eyelets; each of these provided with a distinct cornea, lens, iris, pupil, and a whole nervous apparatus. In our despised ordinary house-fly may be counted about four thousand of these most subtle instruments of vision; in some dragon-flies about twelve thou- sand. Reliable microscopists have counted even seventeen thousand three hundred and fifty-five in a kind of butterfly, while in the beetle genus mor- della these most delicate eyelets have been found to rise to the almost incred- ible number of twenty - five thousand and eighty-eight.—(From Th. Rym, Jones.) EUCALYPTUS TREES. £ 119 laws, draws us in deepest veneration to the power divine. That is true science ! . * As into tints of sevenfold ray Breaks soft the silvery shimmering white; As fade the sevenfold tints away, ; And all the rainbow melts in light; So from the Iris sportive call Each magic tint the eye to chain, And now let truth unite them all, And light its single stream regain,’’ —Bulwer Lytton, from Schiller. If a series of experiments with coloring principles from coal-tar and bituminous substances led to the invention of the brilliant aniline colors, and brought about an almost total change in many dye processes, how many new wonders may not be disclosed to tech- nology by the rapid strides of organic chemistry ? As is well-known, three or four chemic elements are only engaged in forming numberless organic com- pounds, by a slight increase or decrease or rearrange- ment of the atomic molecules, constructing, for in- stance, from these three or four elements, ever pres- ent and ever attainable, the deadly hydrocyanic acid, the terrible atropin, or the dreadful aconitin at one time ; or at another time, harmless ammonia com- binations universally used for culinary and other pur- poses of daily life. Our wood-tars, we may remem- ber, are left, as yet, almost unexamined as regards their chemic constitutents. Few of our timbers have been chemically analyzed ; few other of our vegetable products are as yet accurately tested. What an end- less expanse for exploration does organic chemistry thus offer us! We are called on, among a thousand things, to trace out similar mutual relation and coun- teraction of such extremely powerful plants as the 120 ’ FOREST CULTURE AND Belladonna and Calabar Bean. Here medicine, chem- istry, and phytology go hand in hand. How, again, is any analysis of the chemic constituents of any plant, for cultural purposes or otherwise, to be ap- plied,unless we command a language of phytographic expressions which will name with never-failing pre- cision the object before us, and give to its elucidation value and stability ? We may speak chemically ot potash plants, lime plants, and so forth ; we may wish to define thereby the direction of certain industrial pursuits, and we may safely thereby foretell what plants can be raised profitably on any particular soil or with the use of any particular manure; but how is this knowledge to be fixed without exact phytologic information, or how is the knowledge to be applied, if we are to trust to vernacular names, perplexing even within the area of a small colony, and useless, as a rule, beyond it ? Colonial Box-trees by dozens, yet all distinct, and utterly unlike Turkey Box; colonial Myrtle, without the remotest resemblance to the poet’s myrtle ; colo- nial Oaks, analogous to those Indian trees which as Casuarine were distinguished so graphically by Rumpf two hundred years ago, but without a trace of simi- larity to any real Oak—afford instances of our confused and ludicrous vernacular appellations. A total change is demanded, resting on the rational observations and deductions which science already has gained for us, Assuredly, with any claims to ordinary intelligence, we ought to banish such designations, not only from museum collections, but also from the dictionary of the artisan. One. of the genera of Mushrooms, certainly the EUCALYPTUS TREES. 121 largest of them (Agaricus), contains alone about a thousand species, well distinguished from each other, a good many even occurring in this country. For the practical purposes of common life it becomes an object to distinguish the many wholesome from the multi- tude of deleterious kinds, or the circumstances under which the harmless sorts may become hurtful. In France the cultivation of mushrooms in under-ground caverns has become a branch of industry not altogeth- er unimportaut. How, in other instances, is many a culinary vegetable to be distinguished from the poi- son herb without the microscope of the phytographer being applied to dissections, or without the language of science recording the characters ? How many a life, lost through a child’s playfulness, or through the unacquaintance of the adult, even with the most ordi- nary objects of knowledge among plants, might have been saved, even in these times of higher education, if phytologic knowledge was more universal! The species of fungi which can be converted into pleasant, nutritious food are far more numerous than popularly supposed, but for extending industries in this direc- tion botanic science must assume the guardianship. In a technologie hall like this I should like to see instructive portraits also of all the edible and noxious plants likely to come within the colonist’s reach. Among about one thousand kinds of Fig-trees which (so Mons, Alphonse de Candolle tells me), through Mons. Bureau’s present writings for the Prodromus, are ascertained to exist, only one yields the fig of our table, only one forms the famed sycamore fig, planted along so many roads of the Orient; only one consti- tutes our own Ficus macrophylla, destined, in its *7 122 FOREST CULTURE AND unsurpassed magnificence, to overshade here our path- ways. How are these thousands of species of Ficus, all distinct in appearance, in character, and in uses— how are they to be recognized, unless a diagnosis of each becomes carefully elaborated and recorded, head- ed by a specific name ? Without descriptive botany all safe discrimination becomes futile. To bear our share in building up an universal system of specific delimitation of all plants is a task well worthy of the patronage of an intelligent and high-minded people. The physician is thereby guided to draw safe comparisons in reference to the action of herbs and roots which he wishes to prescribe, as available from native resources. Thus it was through Victorian researches that not only the close affinity of Goodeniacez to the order of Gentianeze was brought to light, but simultaneously a host of herbs and shrubs of the former order gained for therapeutic uses. When once it was ascertained that the so- called Myrtle-tree of our forest moors was a true Beech the artisan then also found offered to him a timber of great similarity to that of the Beech forests of his British home. Of the grass genus Panicum we know the world possesses, according to a recent botanic disquisition, about eight hundred and fifty species, all more or less nutritive. But one only of these is the famous Coa- pin of Angola (Panicum spectabile), one of the War- ree (Panicum miliaceum), one the Bhadiee (Panicum pilosum), one the Derran (P. frumentaceum). We might dispense, perhaps, as far as these few are con- cerned, with their scientific appellations, though not even the. mere task of naming has become therewith EUCALYPTUS TREES, 123 easier, and no information whatsoever of their char- acteristics has been gained. But if we wish to refer to any of the many hundred other species of Panicum, in what way are we to express ourselves if even their vernacular names could be collected from at least a dozen of languages, and impressed on any one’s mem- ory? They are, as may readily be imagined, very different indeed in their special nutritiveness, degree of endurance, and length of life. Ofone hundred and forty species of Bromus only one is the Prairie Grass, which has attained already a great celebrity as a pas- ture grass naturalized in this country ; and it is only one other Bromus, among the many nutritious kinds, which carries the palm as the most fattening fod- der-grass for cold, marshy pastures, and gradually, through depasturing, suppresses completely all other grasses and weeds; so it is proved on the marsh- lands of Oldenburg. This Bromus (B. secalinus), as far as I am cognizant, is nowhere as yet economically cultivated in Victoria. Nothing would be easier than to commence dissem- inating a number of the best grasses in addition to those already here; for instance, the Canadian Rice- Grass (Hydropyrum esculentum) for our swamp-lands. Their nutritive value must be tested by analysis and other experiments, just like that of the Saltbushes of the Murray Flats. Hence ample scope for the exer- tions of science also in this direction. In Cotta’s celebrated publishing establishment at Stuttgart a most useful work is issued by my friend, Prof. Noerdlinger, on the structure of timber of vari- ous kinds, illustrated by microscopic sections of the wood itself; for the latter fascicles I furnished some 124 FOREST CULTURE AND material from this colony. The work should be ac- cessible in this Museum to all interested in wood- work. How much we have yet to learn of the value of our forest products is instanced when we now know from Spanish physicians to combat ague with Eucalyptus- leaves, or when Count Maillard de Marafy, from ex- periments instituted this year in Egypt, announced to us that Eucalyptus-leaves can be used as a substi- tute for Sumach. (Egypte Agricole, 1870.) Already, in the earlier part of this lecture, I spoke of the Peru Bark plants ; but the Cinchonas are not all of the same kind. Some endure a lower degree of temperature than others, some are richer in qui- nine, others richer in cinchonine, others in quinoi- dine; and this again is much subject to fluctuations under different effects of climate and soil. Great er- rors may be committed, and have been committed, by adopting from among a number of species the least valuable, or one under ordinary circumstances almost devoid of alkaloid, though a representative of the genus cinchona, and not unlike the lucrative species. When calculations in India prognosticate the almost incredible annual return of one hundred and thirty per cent., after four years, on the original outlay for Cinchona plantation, it is supposed that the conditions for this new industrial culture are to the utmost favor- able. That one of the best species did not thrive there at all in proportion to expectations is owing, in my opinion, to geologic conditions. The Cinchonas before you, reared in soil from our Fern-tree gullies, I intended to have tested for the percentage of their alkaloids prior to this eyening ; but the timely per- EUCALYPTUS TREES. 125 formance of this investigation was frustrated. I think that I have proved the hardiness or adaptabil- ity of these important plants for the warm Palm val- leys of East Gipps Land, as many indigenous plants from that genial spot are quite as much, if not more, susceptible to the night- frosts of our city than the Cinchone, if harsh, cutting winds are kept from the latter. Butas yet Iam unacquainted with the likely results of remunerative Cinchona cultivation within the boundaries of this colony, as far as such depends on the constituents of the soil, That inquiries of this kind are not mere chimeras may be conceded after an explanation of this kind for the benefit of future technology. Geology, one of the brightest satellites which rotate around the sun of universal science, con- tinues to send its lustre into the darkness which yet involves so many of the great operations in tellurian nature. Further insight into the relation of this dis- cipline of science to vegetable physiology is certain to shed abundance of light alsoon many branches of applied industry. The causes why the Iron- bark trees of our auriferous quartz ridges differ so material- ly from the conspecific tree of alluvial flats can only be explained geologically. So it is with the narrow- Jeaved Eucalyptus amygdalina on open stony decliv- ities as compared with the broad-leaved Eucalyptus fissilis, which in such gigantic dimensions towers up from our deep forest valleys. But all this has an im- portant bearing on technological exertions in manifold directions. 'The timber chosen by the artisan from a wrong locality may impair the soundness of a whole building; or a factory may prove not lucrative simply because if is placed on a wrong spot for the best raw material. 126 FOREST CULTURE AND A thousand of other industrial purposes might yet be served by a close knowledge of plants. So the designer might choose patterns far more beautiful from the simple and ever-perfect beauty of nature than he gains from distorted forms copied into much of our tapestry ; thus a room, now-a-days, as a rule, decorat- ed with unmeaning and often, as far as imitation of nature is concerned, impossible figures, might become, geographically or phytographically, quite instructive. If here the founders of territorial estates—some, per- haps, as large as the palatinates of the Middle Ages— should wish to perpetuate the custom of choosing a symbol for family arms, they—asthe Highland clans, who adopted special plants of their native mountains for a distinguishing badge—might select, as the an- cestral emblem, the flowers of our soil, destined, per- haps, to be traced, not without pride, by many a lineage through a hundred generations. Precise knowledge of even the oceanic vegetation, in its almost infinite display of forms, offers not mere- ly the most delicate objects for design, but brings be- fore us its respective value for manure, or the impor- tance of various herbage on which fishes will browse ; while such marine weeds may as well be transferred from ocean to ocean, as ova of trout have been brought from the far north to these distant southern latitudes. Who could foresee when first iodine was accidentally discovered in sea - weeds, through soda factories, or bromine subsequently appeared as a mere substance of curiosity, what powerful therapeutic agents there- by were gained for medicine, what unique results they would render for chemical processes, of what incalcu- lable advantages they would prove in physiological EUCALYPTUS TREES. 127 researches or microscopic tests; and how, without them, photographic art could not have depictured, with unerring fidelity, millions of objects, whether of landscapes or of the starry sky, whether of the beings dear to us or the relics of antiquity, whether enlarging the scope of lithography or recording the languages, which the flashing of telegraphic electricity sends to a dwelling or to an empire? Even the vegetable fossils, deep-buried in the earth or in the cleavage of rocks, when viewed by the light of phytology, become so many letters on the pages of nature’s revelation, from which we are to learn the age of strata, or may trace the sources of metallic wealth, or by which we may be guided to huge remnants of forests of bygone ages, stored up for the utilization of this epoch, or may comprehend, as far as mortal understanding serves us, successive changes in tellurian creation. When Ray and, subsequently, Jussieu, framed the first groundwork for the ordinal demarcation of plants ; when Tournefort, by defining generic limits, brought further clearness into the chaos of dawning systematie knowledge,'and when Linne gave so hap- pily to each plant its second or specific name, but lit- tle was it indeed foreseen what a vast influence these principles of sound methodic arrangement would ex- ercise, not only on the easy recognition of the varied forms of vegetable life, but also on the philosophic elucidation of their properties and uses, and this for all times to come. Many, even at the present day, and among them at times those on whom the desti- nies of whole states and populations may depend, can recognize in phytographic and other scientific labors but little else than a mere play-work ; yet, without 128 FOREST CULTURE AND such labors, every solid basis for applying the knowl- edge of plants to uses of any kind would be wanting. We would stray, indeed, unguided in a labyrinth between crude masses or inordinate fragments, instead of dwelling in a grand and lasting structure of knowl- edge, unless science also in this direction had raised its imperishable temples. But how much patient and toilsome research had to be spent thus to bring togeth- er in a systematic arrangement all the products of this wide globe; how many dangers of exploring travelers had to be braved to amplify the material for this knowledge, and how many have @» pass away, even now-a-days, persecuted and worried like Galileo at his time, no one yet has told, nor will tell. Well may we feel with the great German poet, as expressed in Bulwer Lytton’s beautiful wording : ‘© J will reward thee in a holier land, Do give to me thy youth! All I can grant you lies in this command— I heard, and trusting in a holier land, Gave my young joys to truth.” But is there nothing higher than the search of earthly riches, and is to this all knowledge of the earth’s beautiful vegetation also to be rendered sub- servient ? Is there nothing loftier than to break the flowers for our gayeties or to strew them along a mirthful path? There is! They raised the noblest feelings of the poet at all ages ; they spoke the purest words of attachment; they ever were the silent har- bingers of love. They smilingly inspired hope anew in unmeasured sadness, and on the death-bed or at the grave they appear to link together, as symbols of ever -returning springs, the mortal world with im- mortality ; they ever teach us some of the sublimest revelations of our eternal God. EUCALYPTUS TREES, 129 The laurel crown of the hero was a people’s high- est reward of chivalrous and glorious deeds, The myrtle or orange-wreath for bridal curls re- mains the proudest gift to youthful hope. The little blooming weed, content in a parched and dreary desert, revived the strength of many a sinking wanderer (Mungo Park); the ever unalterable beauty and harmony of moral structures preaches the truths of eternal laws in the universe —a faith that gave expression to Schiller’s memorable words, as repeated by that leading British statesman, Gladstone: ‘It’s not all chance the world obeys.’’? The innocent love- liness of nature’s flowers has often aroused anew the shaken spirit of the philosopher, and to these and other gifts of nature the American bard alludes when he speaks of the great zoologist, Agassiz, of whose friendship I may well be proud : ‘* And whenever the way seemed so long, Or bis heart began him to fail, She would sing a still more wondrous song, Or tell a more marvellous tale.”’ And when it seems that all hopes of the weeping mother are extinguished, or even the teachings of religion may well-nigh forsake her, then the deep meaning of some of our noblest poems, inspired by nature, is understood, and faith in eternity once more embraced. ‘* And the mother gave in tear and pain The flowers she most did love ; , She knew she would find them all again In the fields of light above.” * ‘* And with childlike credulous affection We behold their tender bud expand— Emblems of our own resurrection Emblems of the bright and better Jand,’”' ‘ee ~ , Ta 7 ' i - aaa ae \ é ; : ‘ - ; d . 4 i ‘ H q b r 4 ae . 4 é : - * , = . A <~ ’ ° a, p ; AUSTRALIAN VEGETATION, The great continent of Australia exhibits through- out its varied zones marked diversities in the physi- ognomy of its vegetation. These differences stand less in relation to geographical latitudes than to geo- logical formations, and especially climatical condi- tions. Yet it is in few localities only where the pecu- liar features, impressed by nature as a whole on the Australian landscape, cannot at once be recognized. The occurrence of Eucalypts and simple-leaved Aca- cias in all regions, and the preponderance of these trees in most, suffice alone to demonstrate that in Australia we are surrounded largely by forms of the vegetable world which, as a complex, nowhere re-oc- cur beyond its territory, unless in creations of ages passed by. In a cursory glance at the vegetation, as intended on this occasion, it is not the object to analyze its details. In viewing vegetable life here, more parti- cularly as the exponent of clime, or as the guide for settlement, or as the source of products for arts and manufactures, we may content ourselves by casting a view only on the leading features presented by the world of plants in this great country. While the absence of very high and wooded mountains imparts to the vegetation throughout a vast extent of Austra- lia a degree of monotony, we perceive that the occur- 132 FOREST CULTURE AND rence of lofty forest ranges along the whole eastern and south-eastern coast changes largely there the as- pect of the country, and in this alteration the moun- tainous island Tasmania greatly participates. Thus the extensive umbrageous forest regions of perpetual humidity commence in the vicinity of Cape Otway ; extend occasionally, but not widely interrupted, through the southern and eastern part of Victoria, and thence, especially on the seaside slopes of the ranges, throughout the whole of extra-and intra-trop- ical East Australia in a band of more or less width, until the cessation of elevated mountains on the north- ern coast confines the regions of continued moisture to a narrow strip of jungle-land margining the coast. In this vast line of-elevated coast-country, extend- ing in length over nearly three thousand miles, and which fairly may pass as the «« Australian jungle,” the vegetation assimilates more than elsewhere to extra- Australian types, especially to the impressive floral features of continental and insular India, Progressing: from the Victorian promontories easterly, and thence northerly, we find that the Eucalypts, which still pre- ponderate in the forest of the southern ranges, gradu- ally forsake us, and thus in eastern Gipps Land com- mences the vast assemblage of varied trees which so. much charms by its variety of forms, and so keenly engages attention by the multiplicity of its interest. Bathed in vapor from innumerable springs or torrents, and sheltered under the dark foliage of trees very varied in form, a magnificent display of the Fern- trees commences, for which further westerly we would seek in vain the climatic conditions. Even isolated sentries, as it were, of the Fern-tree masses EUCALYPTUS TREES. 133 are scattered not further west than to the craters of extinct volcanoes near Mount Gambier, and although colossal Todea Ferns, with stems six to ten feet high, and occasionally as thick, emerge from the streamlets which meander through the deep ravines near Mount Lofty, on St. Vincent’s Gulf, we miss there the stately Palm-like grace of the Cyathez, Dicksoniz, and Al- sophile, which leave on the lover of nature who ever beheld them the remembrance of their inexpressible beauty. These Fern- trees, often twenty to thirty, occasionally fifty to seventy feet high, and at least as many years old, if not older, admit readily of removal from their still mild and humid haunts to places where, for decorative vegetation, we are able to produce the moisture and the shade necessary for their existence. Of all Fern-trees of the globe that species which pre- dominates through the dark glens of Victoria, Tasma- nia, and parts of New South Wales, the Dicksonia Antarctica (although not occurring in the antarctic regions), is the most hardy and least susceptible to dry heat. This species, therefore, should be chosen for garden ornaments, or for being plunged into any park glens; and if it is considered that trees half a century old may with impunity be deprived of their foliage and sent away to distant countries as ordinary merchandise, it is also surprising that a plant so abund- ant has not yet become an article of more extended commerce. A multitude of smaller ferns, many of delicate forms, are harbored under the shade of j ungle vege- tation, amounting in their aggregate to about one hundred and sixty species, to which number future researches in north-east Australia will undoubtedly 134 FOREST CULTURE AND add. The circular Asplenium nidus, or great Nest Fern, with fronds often six feet long, extends to the eastern part of Gipps Land, but the equally grand Stag- horn Fern (Platycerium alcicorne and P. grande ) seemingly cease to advance south of Illawarra, while in northern Queeensland Angiopteris evecta count among the most gorgeous, and two slender Alsophilze among the most graceful forms. The transhipment of all these Ferns offers lucrative inducements to trad- ers with foreign countries. Epiphytal Orchids, so much in horticultural request, are less numerous in these jungle-tracts than might have been anticipated, those discovered not yet exceeding thirty in number. Their isolated outposts advance in one representative species—the Sarcochilus Gunnii—to Tasmania and the vicinity of Cape Otway, and in another—Cymbidium canaliculatum—toward Central Australia. The com- parative scantiness of these epiphytes contrasts as - strangely with the Indian Orchid-vegetation as with the exuberance of the lovely terrestrial co-ordinal plants throughout most parts of extra-tropical Austra- lia, from whence one hundred and twenty well-defined species are known. Still more remarkable is the al- most total absence of Orchids, both terrestrial and epi- phytal, from north and north-west Australia, an ab- sence for which in the central parts of the continent aridity sufficiently accounts, but for which we have no other explanation in the north than that the spe- cies have as yet there effected but a limited migra- tion. To the jungles and cedar-brushes—the latter so named because they yield that furniture-wood so famed as the Red Cedar (Cedrela taona, a tree identi- cal as a species with the Indian plant, though slight- EUCALYPTUS TREES. 135 jy different in its wood) are absolutely confined the Anonacee, Laurines, Monimiez, Meliacez, Rubi- aces, Myrsinez, Sapotez, Ebenacee, and Anacardier, together with the Baccate Myrtacesx, and nearly all the trees of Euphorbiace, Rutacer, Apocynex, Celas- trinez, Sapindacez, which, while often outnumbering the interspersed Eucalypts, seem to transfer the ob- server to Indian regions. None in the multitude of trees of these orders, with exception of our tonic-aro- matic Sassafras-tree (Atherospermum moschatum) and Hedycarpa Cunninghami, which supplies to the na- tives the friction-wood for igniting, transgress in the south the meridians of Gipps Land. Palms cease also there to exist, but their number increases northward along the east coast, while in Victoria these noble plants have their only representative in the tall-cab- bage or Fan- palm of the Snowy River —that Palm which, with the equally hardy Areca sapida of New Zealand, ought to be established wherever the Date is planted for embellishment. Rotang Palms (Calami of several species) render some of the northern thick- ets almost inapproachable, while there, also, on a few spots of the coast, the Cocoanut-tree occurs spontane- ously. A few peculiar Palms occur in the Cassowary country, near Cape York, and others around the Gulf of Carpentaria, as far west as Arnhemsland. The tallest of all, the lofty Alexandra Palm (Ptychosperma Alex- dre), extends southward to the tropic of Capricorn, and elevates its majestic crown widely beyond the or- - dinary trees of the jungle. The products of these en- tire forests is as varied as the vegetation which con- stitutes them. As yet, however, their treasures have been but scantily subjected to the test of the physi- 186 FOREST CULTURE AND cian, the manufacturer, or the artisan. The bark of Alstonia constricta, like that of allied Indian species, is ascertained to be febrifugal, so that of Chionanthus axillaris, and Brucea Sumatrana. Caoutchouc might be produced from various trees, especially the tall kinds of Ficus. The lustre and tint of the polished woods of others is unrivaled. Edible fruits are yield- ed by Achras Australis, Achras Pohlmaniana, Mimu- sops kauki, Zizyphus jujuba, Citrus Australis, Citrus Planchonii, Eugenia Myrtifolia, Eugenia tierneyana, Parinarium nonda, the Candlenut-tree (Aleurites tri- loba), and the cluster Fig-tree (Ficus vesca, which produces its bunches from the stem) ; also by species of Owenia and Spondias, and by several brambles and vines. Starchy aliment or edible tubers are fur- nished by Tacca pinnatifida, by several Cissi (C. opaca, C. clematidea, acrid when unprepared), Marsdeni vir- idiflora, Colocasia antiquorum, Alocasia macrorrhiza, by a colossal Cycas, some Zamie, and several kinds of Yam (Dioscorea bulbifera, Dioscorea punctata, and other species). Backhousia citriodora and Myrtus fragrantissima yield a cosmetic oil; so, also, Euca- lyptus citriodora, a tree not confined to the jungle, and two kinds of Ocimum. Semecarpus anacardium, the marking Nut-tree, is a native of the most north- ern brush-country. The medicinal Mallotus Philip- pinensis, and the poisonous Excecaria Agallocha are more frequent. Baloghia lucida furnishes a red dye never to be obliterated. Many of the trees of the coast-forests of East Aus- tralia range from the extreme north to the remotest south, among them the Palm-panax ; others, like Araucaria Cunninghami, extend only to the northern EUCALYPTUS TREES. 187 part of New South Wales, while some, including Araucaria Bidwelli, or the Bunya-Bunya-tree, so re- markable for its large, edible, nutlike seeds, and the Australian Kauri, Dammara robusta, are confined to very circumscribed or solitary areas. The absence of superior spice-plants (as far as hitherto ascertained) amidst a vegetation of prevailing Indian type is not a little remarkable, for Cinnamomum Laubatii ranks only as a noble timber-tree, and the native nutmegs are inert. The scantiness of acanthaceous plants is also a noticgable fact. Podostemonee have not yet been found. Many plants of great interest to the phytographer are seemingly never quitting the north- eastern peninsula ; among these the Banksian ba- nana (Musa Banksii), the pitcher-plant (Nepenthes Kennedyana), the vermillion - flowered Eugenia Wil- sonii, the curious Helmholtzia acorifolia, the Mar shal-tree, Archidendron Vaillantii (the only plant of the vast order of Leguminose with numerous styles), the splendid Diplanthera quadrifolia, Ficus magnifo- lia, with leaves two feet long, the tall Cardwellia sub- limis, and the splendid Cryptocarpa Mackinnoniana, are especially remarkable. Rhapidophara, Pothos, Piper, together with a host of Lianes, especially gay through the prevalence of Ipomeas, tend with so many other plants to impart to the jungle part of Australia all the luxuriance of tropical vegetation. Of the two great Nettle-trees, the Laportea gigas occurs in the most northern regions, while Laportea photinifolia is more widely diffused. Helicia is represented by a number of fine trees far south, some bearing edible nuts. Doryanthes excelsa, the tall spear-lily, is confined to the forests of New South Wales. The flowers of Ob- 8 1388 FOREST CULTURE AND eronia palmicola are more minute than those of any other orchideous plant, although more than two thou- sand species are known from various parts of the globe. The display of trees eligible for avenues from these jungles is large. The tall Fern-palm (Zamia Deniso- nii), one of the most stately members of the varied Australian vegetation, is widely, but nowhere copi- ously, diffused along the east coast ; it yields a kind of sago, like allied plants. The beans of Castanosper- mum Australe, which are rich in starch, and those of Entada pursetha, from a pod often four feet long, are, with very many other vegetable substances, on which Mons. Thozet has shed much light, converted by the aborigines into food. If plants representing the genera Berberis, Impa- tiens, Rosa, Begonia, Ilex, Rhododendron, Vaccini- um, or, perhaps, even Firs, Cypresses, and Oaks, do at all occur in Australia, as in the middle regions of the mountains of India, it will be on the highest hills of north-east Australia—namely, on the Bellenden’ Ker ranges, mountains still unapproachable through the hostility of the natives—where they will find the cooler and simultaneously moist tropical climate con- genial to their existence. But whatever may be the variety and wealth of the primitive flora of East Aus- tralia, it is only by the active intelligence and exer- tions of man that the greatest riches can be wrought from the soil. Whatever plants he may choose to raise—whatever costly spices, luscious fruits, expen- sive dyes; whether cacao, manihot, or other aliment- ary plants; whether sugar, coffee, or any others of more extensive tropical tillage—for all may be found wide tracts fitted for their new home. KUCALYPTUS TREES. 139 The close access to harbors facilitates culture, while the expansive extent of geographical latitude on the east coast admits of choosing such spots asin each in- stance present the most favorable climatic conditions for the success of each special plantation. Beyond the coast ranges the country westward changes with aug- menting dryness generally at once into more open pastoral ground. SBasaltic downs and gentle verdant rises of eminent richness of herbage may alternately give way to Brigalow scrubs, or sandstone plateaux, or porphyritic or granitichills, and with the change of the geological formation a change, often very appa- rent, will take place alsoin the vegetation. Inland we will lose sight of the glossy, dense, umbrageous foliage, which now only borders a generally low coast in the north, terminating there frequently in mangroves. Strychnos nux vomica occurs among the coast-bushes here, and also an Antiaris (A. macrophylla); but whether the latter shares the deadly poison of the Upas-tree of Java and Sumatra requires to be ascer- tained. Tamarindus Indica isknown from Arnhems- land, and the French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) in a spontaneous state from the north-west coast. Euca- lypts, again, form away from the sea-the prevailing timber, but with the exception of the Red Gum-tree (Eucalyptus rostrata), which lines most of the rivers of the whole of the Australian interior, the southern species are replaced by others, never of gigantic growth, insome instances adorned with brilliant scar- let or crimson blossoms. But neither these nor many distinct kinds of northern Acacias and Melaleucas stamp on the country the expression of peculiarity. Familiar Australian forms usually surround us, though 140 FOREST CULTURE AND those of the cooler zone, and even the otherwise al- most universal Senecios, are generally absent. Cype- rus vaginatus, perhaps the best of all textile rushes, ranges from the remotest south to these northern re- gions. Hibiscus tiliaceus, with other malvaceous plants, is here chosen by the natives for the fibre of their fishing-nets and cordage. An occasional inter- spersion of the dazzling Erythrina vespertilio, of Bauhinia Leichardti, Erythrophleur lLaboucheri, Livistonia Palms, and many Terminaliz, some with edible fruits, Cochlospermum Gregorii, C. heterone- mum, remind, however, of the flora of tropical lati- tudes, which, moreover, to the eye of an experienced observer, is revealed also in a multitude of smaller plants, either identical with South Asiatic species or representing in peculiar forms tropical genera. The identity of about six hundred Asiatic plants (some cosmopolitan) with native Australian species, has been placed beyond doubt, and to this series of absolutely identical forms, as well derived from the jungle as from grounds free of forest, unquestionably several hundred will yet be added. Melaleuca leucadendron, the Cajeput-tree of India, is among Indo-Australian trees one of the most uni- versal ; it extends, as one of the largest timber-trees of north Australia, along many of its rivers, and in diminutive size over the dry sand-stone table-lands. The Asiatic and Pacific Casuarina equisetifolia accom- panies it often in the vicinity of the coast. By far the most remarkable form in the vegetation of north- west Australia is the Gouty - stem- tree (Adansonia Gregorii) ; but it is restricted to a limited tract of coast-country. It assumes precisely the bulky form hav cel oft aA’ 2% {< vee i: oe 4s: Pecan TREES. J 141 of its only congener, the nkey-bread- -tree, or Bao- bab of tropical Africa (Adansontr digitata), dissimilar mainly in having its nuts not suspended on long fruit- stalks. Evidence, though not conclusive, gained in Australia, when applied to the African Baobab, ren- ders it improbable that the age of any individual tree now in existence dates from remote antiquity. This view is also held by Dr. G. Bennett, of Sydney. The tree is of economic importance ; its stem yields a mu- cilage indurating to a tragacanth-like gum. It is also one of the few trees which introduces the unwonted sight of deciduous foliage into the evergreen Austra- lian vegetation. Numerousswamps and smallerlakes exist within moderate distance of the coast ; as in many other parts of Australia, these waters are sur- rounded by the wiry Polygonum (Muehlenbeckia Cunninghami), and in Arnhemsland occasionally also by rice-plants, not distinct from the ancient culture- plant. But here, in almost equinoctial latitudes, the stagnant fresh waters are almost invariably nourishing two Water-lilies of great beauty (Nymphea stellata and Nymphea gigantea), which give, by the gay dis- play of their blue, pink, or crimson shades of flowers, or by their pure white, a brilliant aspect to these lakes ; and even the Pythagorean bean (Nelumbo nucifera) sends occasionally its fine shield-like leaves and large blossom and esculent fruits out of the still and shel- tered waters. But how much could this splendor of lake-vegetation be augmented if the reginal Victoria, the prodigious Water-lily of the Amazon River, was scattered and naturalized in these lakes, to expand over their surface its stupendous leaves, and to send forth its huge, snowy, and crimson, fragrant flowers, 142 FOREST CULTURE AND It would add to the aliment which the natives now obtain from these lakes and swamps by diving for the roots and fruits of the Nymphe, or for the tubers of Heleocharis sphacelata, of species of Aponogeton, or by uprooting the starchy rhizomes of Typha augusti- folia (the Bullrush), when eager of adding a vegetable compound to'their diet of Unio shells, or of water- fowls and fishes, all abounding on these favorite places of their resort. Trapa bispinosa, already living, like the Victoria, in the tanks of our conservatories, ought, with Trapa natans, for the sake of its nuts, not only to be naturalized in the waters of the north, but also in the lagoons and swamps of the south. Around these lakes Screw-Pines (Pandanus spiralis and Pan- danus aquaticus) may often be seen to emerge from the banks, the latter, as recorded already by Leich- hardt, always indicative of permanent water. The young top-parts of the stems of these Pandans, when subjected to boiling, become free of acridity, and thus available, in cases of emergency, for food. Opilia amentacea and the weeping Eugenia eucalyptoides, together with a native cucumber (Cucumis jucunda), are here among the few plants yielding edible fruit. Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) abounds, and in sandy soil it is found pleasantly acidulous. It will always be acceptable, as a salad or spinach, especially in affec- tions from scurvy, and its amylaceous seeds might, in cases of distress, be readily gathered for food. ita, Sm., W.A.; E, Leucoxylon, F. M., S.A., V., N.S.W.; E. melliodora, A. C., V., N.SW.s) BE. pracilis, F. Mi) W.A.,:S.A., V.,° N:S. W.; E: paniculata, Sm., N.S.W.; E. fasciculosa, F. M., S.A., V., N.S. W.; E. hemastoma, Sm., N.S.W., Q.L.; E. microcorys, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; E. pruinosa, Schauer, N.A.; E. oligantha, Schauer, N.A.; E. polyanthemos, Schauer, V., N.S.W., Q.L., N.A.; E. Behriana, F. M., S.A., V., N.S.W.; E. largiflorens, BY Me, SAS, Vi, N.S) W., Q:1i;; BE. odorata, Bebr,, S.A.; EB: uncinata, Turcz., W.A., S.A., V., N.S.W.; E. hemiphloia, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; E. stricta, Sieb., N.S.W.; E. decipiens, Endl., W.A.; E. corynocalyx, F. M., S.A.; E. albens, Migq., V., N.S.W.; E. Bowmanii, F. M., Q.L.; E. siderophloia, Benth., V.S.W., Q.L.; E. melanophloia, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; E. drepanophylla ; F. M., Q.L., N.A.; E. trachyphloia, F. M., Q. L.; E. leptophleba, F. M., Q.L., N.A.; E. crebra, F. M., N.S. W., Q:L., N.A.; E. brachypoda, Turcz., W.A., S.A., N.S.W., N.A., C.A.; E. brachyandra, F. M., N.A.; E. pulverulenta, Sims., N.S.W.; E. globulus, Lab., T., V.; E. longifolia, Link and Otto, V., N.S.W.; E. conoidea, Benth., W.A.; E. urnigera, J. Hook, T.; E. miniata, Cunn., N.A.; E. robusta, Sm., N.S. W.; E. botryoides, Sm., V., N.S.W., Q.L.; E. goniocalyx, F. M., V., N.S.W.; E. gomphocephala, Cand., W.A.; E. megacar- pa, F. M., W.A.; E. cornuta, Labill., W.A.; E. platypus, Hook, E. macrandra, F. M., W.A.; E. occidentalis, Endl, W.A.; E. pallidifolia, F. M., N.A.; E. viminalis, Labill., S.A., T., V., N.S.W.; E. rostrata, Schl., W.A., 8.A., V., N.S.W., QL, N. A., C.A.; E. tereticornis, Sm., V., N.S.W., Q.L.; E. platyphyl- la, F. M., Q.L., N.A.; F. tectifica, F. M., N.A.; E. Stuartiana, F. M., S.A., T., V., N.S.W.; E. patellaris, F. M., N.A.; F. ru- dis, Endl., W.A.; E. saligna, Sm., N.S.W.; E. resinifera, Sm., N.S.W., Q. L.; E. pellita, F. M., Q.L.; E. Gunnii, J. Hook, T., V.; E. patens, Benth., W.A.; E. concolor, Schauer, W.A.; E. decurva, F. M., W.A.; E. aspera, F. M., N.A.; E. grandifolia, Br., N.A.; E. clavigera, Cunn., N.A.; E. tesselaris, F. M., Q.L., N.A.; E. phoenicea, F. M., N.A.; E.colossea, F. M., W.A.; E. loxophleba, Benth., W.A.; E. foecunda, Schauer, W.A.; E. re- dunca, Schauer, W.A.; E. ferruginea, Schauer, N.A.; E. setosa, Schauer, Q.L., N.A.; E. melissiodora, Lindl, Q.L.; E. latifolia, 180 ' FOREST CULTURE AND F. M., N.A.; E. ptychocarpa, F. M., N.A.; E. calophylla, Br., W.A.; E. ficifolia, F. M., W.A.; E. corymbosa, Sm., V., N.S. W., Q.L.; E. citriodora, Hook., N.S.W., Q.L.; E. terminalis, F. M.,Q.L., N.A.; E. dichromophloia, F. M., N.A.; E. apiopho- ra, F. M., N. A.; E. maculata, Hook., S.N.W., Q.L.; E. eximia, Schauer, N.S.W.; E. erythrocorys, F. M., W.A.; E. tetragona, F. M., W.A.; E. tetrodonta, F. M., W.A.; Tristania neriifolia, Br., M.S.W.; T. suaveolens, Sm., N.S.W., Q.L., N.A.; T. con- ferta, Br., N.S.W., Q.L., N.A.; T. lactiflora, F. M., N.A.; T. exilifora,, Hs ME@sls.0 0. laura Bra, Vie, INasevVien) Qn mele psidioides, Cunn., N.A.; T. umbrosa, Cunn., N.A.; Metroside- ros glomulifera,,Sm., N.S.W., Q.L.; M. leptopetala, F. M., N.S. W., Q.L.; M. ternifolia, F. M., Q.L.; M. eucalyptoides, F. M., N.A.; M. chrysantha, F. M., Q.L.; M. paradoxa, F. M., N.A.; Backhousia myrtifolia, Hook. & Harv., N.S.W., Q.L.; B. au- gustifolia, F. M., Q.L.; B. sciadophora, F. M., N.S. W., Q.L.; B. citriodora, F. M., Q.L.; Myrtus Tozerii, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; M. rhytisperma, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; M. gonoclada, F. M., Q. L.; M. Hillii, Benth., Q.L.; M. Bidwillu, Benth., Q.L.; M. ram- ulosa, Benth., Q.L.; M. acmenoides, F. M., N.S. W., Q.L.; Myr- tus fragrantissima, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; M. sessiliflora, F. M., Q.L.; M. melastomoides, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; M. argentea, Hill., N.S. W., Q.L.; M. elachantha, F. M., N.S. W., Q.L.; M. macrocarpa, F. M., Q.L.; Eugenia Smithii, Poir., V., N.S.W., Q.L., N.A.; E. Ventenatii, Benth., N.S.W., Q.L.; E. leptantha, Wight, Q.L.; E. jambolana, Lam., N.S.W., Q.L.; E. cormiflora, F. M., Q.L.; E. Tierneyana, F. M., Q.L.; E. grandis, Wight, Q.L.; E. suborbicularis, Benth., Q.L.; E. Wilsonu, F. M., Q.L.; K. eucalyptoides, F. M., Q.L.; E. angophoroides, F. M., Q.L.; K. Armstrongi, Benth., N.A.; E. oleosa, F. M., Q.L.; E. Dal- lachyana, F. M., Q.L.; E. jucunda, F. M., Q.L.; Barringtonia Careya, F. M., Q.L., N.A.; B. speciosa, L. Fil., Q.L.; B. acut- angula, Gaertn., Q. L. CHRYSOBALANE. Parinarium Nonda, F. M., Q.L., N.A.; P. Griffithianum, Benth., Q.L., N.A. SAXIFRAGE, Quintinia Sieberi, A. Cand., N.S.W.; Q. Verdonii, F. M., N.S.W.; Polyosma Cunninghami, Br., N.S.W.; Anopterus EUCALYPTUS TREES. 181 Macleayana, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; A. glandulosa, Lab., T.; Callicoma serratifolia, Andr., N.S.W., Q.L.; C. Stutzerii, F. M., Q.L.; Anodopetalum biglandulosum, Cunn., T.; Aphanope- talum resinosum, Endl., V., N.S. W., Q.L.; Ceratopetalum gum- miferum, Sm., N.S.W.; C. apetalum, D. Don, N.S8.W.; Schizo- meria ovata, D. Don, N.S.W.; Davidsonia pruriens, F. M., Q. L.; Gillbeea adenopetala, F. M., Q.L.; Weinmannia paniculosa, F. M., N.S.W.; W. rubifolia, Benth., N.S.W.; W. Benthami, F. M., N.S.W.; W. Biagiana, F. M., Q.L.; Tetracarpea Tas- manica, J. Hook., T.; Eucryphia Billardierii, Spach, T.; E. Moorei, F. M., N.S. W. LYTHRACEX. Pemphis acidula, Forst., Q.L., N.A.; Sommeratia acida, L., OL. NCA, RHIZOPHOREX. Rhizophora mucronata, Lam., Q.L., N.A.; Ceriops Candollea- na, Arn., Q.L., N.A.; Bruguiera Rheedei, Blume., Q.L., N.A.; B. gymnorrhiza, Lam., Q.L., N.A.; Carallia integrifolia, Cand., Oabs NA. COMBRETACE ®. Terminalia platyptera, F. M., N.A.; T. volucris, Br., N.A.; T. oblongata, F. M., Q.L.; T. bursarina, F, M., N.A.; T. cir- cumalata, F. M., N.A.; T. pterocarpa, F. M., N.A.; T.°Thoze- til, Benth., Q.L.; T. melanocarpa, F. M., Q.L., N.A.; T. Muel- leri, Benth., Q.L.; T. latipes, Benth., N.A.; T. edulis, F. M., N. A.; T. discolor, F. M., N.A.; T. porphyrocarpa, F. M., Q.L.; T. platyphylla, F. M., N.A.; T. petiolaris, Cunn., N.A.; T. erythrocarpa, F. M., N.A.; T. grandiflora, Benth., N.A.; Lum- nitzera racemosa, Willd., Q.L., N.A.; L. coccinea, Wight and Arn., Q.L.; Macropteranthes montana, F. M., Q.L.; M. Kek- wickii, F. M., N.A.; M. Leichhardtii, F. M., Q.L.; Gyrocarpus Jacquinii, Roxb., Q.L., N.A. LAURINEX. Cinnamomum Laubatii, F. M., Q.L.; Cryptocarya glauces- cens, Br., N.S.W., Q.L.; C. microneura, Meissn., N.S.W., Q.L.; C. patentinervis, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; C: obovata, Br., N.S. W.; C. obtusifolia, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; C. Mackinnoniana, F. M., Q.L.; C. hypospodia, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; C. Meissneri, F. M., N.S.W.; C. hypoglauca, Meissn., Q.L.; C. Murrayi, F. M., 182 FOREST CULTURE AND Q.L.; Caryodaphne Browniana, Nees, N.S.W., Q.L.; C. Aus- tralis, A. Br., N.S.W., Q.L.; Endiandra virens, F. M., N.S. W., Q.L.; E. Muelleri, Meissn., N.S.W., Q.L.; E. glauca, Br., Q.L.; K. Sieberi, Nees., N.S.W., Q.L.; E. hypotephra, F. M., Q.L.; Litsea dealbata, Nees., N.S.W., Q.L.; Tetranthera laurifolia, Jacq., Q.L.; T. Bindoniana, F.M., Q.L.; T. Fawcettiana, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; T. reticulata, Meissn., Q.L.; T. ferruginea, Br., Q. L. HERNANDIE®. Hernandia peltata, Meissn., Q. L. SAMYDACE, Homalium Vitiense, Benth., Q.L.; H. brachybotrys, F. M., Q.L., N.A.; Casearia Dellachii, F. M.,Q.L.; C. esculenta, Roxb., Q. L. UMBELLIFER &. Astrotriche floccosa, Cand., N.S.W., Q.L.; Panax palmaceus, F. M., V., N.S.W., Q.L.; P. mollis, Benth., Q.L.; P. Macgilli- vrayl, Benth., Q.L.; P. sambucifolius, Sieb., T., V., N.S. W.; P. cephalobotrys, F. M., N.S.W.; P. elegans, Moore and Muell., N.S.W., Q.L.; Mackinlaya macrosciadea, F. M., Q.L.; Hedera Australiana, F. M., Q.L.; Heptopleurum venulosum, Seem., Q. L.; Brassaia actinophylla, Endl., Q.L. IL.—SYNPETALE. CORNACE. Marlea Vitiensis, Benth., N.S.W., Q.L. CAPRIFOLIACEA, Sambucus xanthocarpa, F. M., V., N.S.W., Q.L. RUBIACE®. Sarcocephalus cordatus, Miq., Q.L., N.A.; Gardenia edulis, F. M., N.A.; G. resinosa, F. M.,.N.A.; G. pyriformis, Cunn., N.A.; G. megasperma, F. M., N. A.; G. Macgillivrayi, Benth., Q.L.; G. ochreata, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; G. Jardinei, F. M., Q.L.; G. Fitzalani, F. M., Q.L.; Webera Dallachiana, F. M., Q.L.; Diplospora Australis, Benth., Q.L.; Ixora Pavetta, Roxb., Q.L.; I. tomentosa, Roxb., Q.L.; I. Timorensis, Cand., N.A.; 1 Beck- leri, Benth., N.S.W.; Timonious Rumphii, Cand., Q.L., N.A.; Antirrhea tenniflora, F. M., Q.L.; Hodgkinsonia ovatiflora, F. EUCALYPTUS TREES. 183 M., N.S.W.,Q.L.; Canthium lucidum, Hook. and Arn., N.S. W., Q,L., N.A.; C. oleifolium, Hook., N.S.W., Q.L., N.A., C.A.; C. coprosmoides, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.,.N.A.; Psychotria nes- ophila, F. M., Q.L., N.A.; Coprosma microphylla, Cunn., Ts Ve eNESAW LORANTHACE®. Nuytsia floribunda, Br., W.A. ELHAGNEA. Eleagnus latifolia, L., Q.L. SANTALACEE. ; Exocarpus latifolia, Br., Q,L., N.A.; E. cupressiformis, Lab., Sao V.. NN. We @. 1: B. pendula, BOE S.A. 2V., NS. Ws E. dasystachys, Schl., S.A., V., N.S.W.; E. glandulacea, Migq., W.A.; Santalum lanceolatum, Br., Q.L., N.A., C.A.; 8S. acumi- natum, A. Cand., 8.A., V., N.S.W.; S. persicarium, F. M., S. A., V., N.S.W.; 8S. cygnorum, Miq., W.A.; S. obtusifolium, Br., N.S. W. PROTEACEA. Cenarrhenes nitida, Lab., T.; Persoonia arborea, F. M., V.; P. longifolia, Br.; W.A.; P. linearis, Br., V., N.S.W.; P. lau- reola, Lindl., W.A.; Adenanthos sericea, Lab., W.A.; A. api- culata, Br., W.A.; Grevillea heliosperma, Br., N.A.;,G. Al- phonsiana, F. M., C.A.; G. pyramidalis, Cunn., N.A.; G. robusta, Cunn., N.S.W., Q.L.; G. refracta, Br., N.A., G. Leucodendron, Cunn., N.A.; G. Crysodendron, Br., N.S. W., Q.L., N.A.; G. Sturtii, Br., C.A.; G. polystachya, Br., Qi, UNAS: (Ge ‘striatas Br, Qo... sINvAS (Cs Aun G.linea= ta, Br, “©. As: “G. mimpsoides, Bri, (NjA.. (C2Al; Gs Hul- ceratophylla, Br., N.A.; G. longiloba, F. M., N.A.; G. li, F. M., Q.L.; G. Bleasdalii, F. M., Q.L.; G. diversifolia, Meissn., W.A.; Hakea lorea, Br., N.A., C.A.; H. longifolia, Cunn., N.A.; H. stricta, F. M., S.A., V., N.S.W.; H. saligna, Kn. and Sal., N.S.W.; H. eriantha, Br., V., N.S.W.; H. arbo- rescens, Br., N.A.; H. eucalyptoides, Meissn., W.A.; Xylome- lum Scottianum, F. M., Q.L.; X. pyriforme, Sm., N.S.W.; X. occidentale, Br., W.A.; Helicia ternifolia, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; H. glabrifiora, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; H. Youngiana, Moore and Muell., N.S.W., Q.L.; H. conjunctiflora, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; H. prealta, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; H. ferruginea, F. M., N.S. 184 FOREST CULTURE AND W., Q.L.; Orites excelsa, Br., N.S.W., Q. L.; Telopea oreades, F. M., V.; Cardwellia sublimis, F. M., Q.L.; Lomatia Fraseri, Br., V., N.S.W., Q.L.; L. polymorpha, Br., T.; Stenocarpus sinuosus, Endl., N.S.W., Q.L.; S. salignus, Br., N.S.W., Q.L.; S. acacioides, F. M., N.A.; S. concolor, F. M.. On: Banksia Cunninghami, Sieb., V., N.S.W.; B. ericifolia, L. fil., N.S.W.; B. litoralis, Br., W.A.; B. cylindrostachya, Lindl., W.A.; B. Australis, Br.) S8-A., 7.) V., NS.W.; B. integrifolia, L. fil.) V., N.S.W., Q.L.; B. verticillata, Br., W.A.; B. attenuta, Br., W.A.; B. elatior, Br., Q.L.; B. prionotes, Lindl., W.A.; B. Menziesii, Br., W.A.; B. serrata, L. fil., T., V., N.S.W.; B. dentata, L. fil., Q.L., N.A.; B. Solandri, Br. W.A.; B. gran- dis, Willd., W.A.; B. Victoriz, Meissn., W.A.; B. elegans, Meissn., W.A.; B. Brownii, Baxt., W.A.; B. ilicifolia, Br., W. A, COMPOSIT A. Aster argophyllus, Lab., T., V., N.S.W.; A. stellulatus, Lab., T., V., N.S.W., Q.L.; Senecio Bedfordii, F. M., T., V., N.S. W. STYRACEA). Symplocos Thwaitesii, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; S. Stawellii, F. M., Q.L. ERICE. Prionotes cerinthoides, Br., T.; Richea pandanifolia, J. Hook., T.; Epacris heteronema, Lab., T.; Cystanthe procera, F. M., T.; Leucopogon Richei, Br., W.A., S.A., T., V., N.S.W., Q.L.; Monotoca elliptica, Br., V., N.S.W., Q.L.; M. lineata, Br., T V.; Trochocarpa laurina, Br., N.S.W., Q.L. ‘ MYRSINE. Aigiceras fragrans, Keenig, N.S.W., Q.L., N.A.; Myrsine variabilis, Br., V., N.S.W., Q.L.; M. porosa, F. M., Q.L.; M. subsessilis, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; Ardisia pseudo-jambosa, F. M., Q.L.; Mesa ependens) Fr, Me a. L.; M. haplobotrys, F. M., Q.L. SAPOTE. Sersalisia cotinifolia, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; S. sericea, Br., Q. L., N.A.; S. obovata, Br., Q.L.; Achras Australis, Br., N.S.W., Q.L.; A. Pohlmaniana, F. M., Q.L.; Mimusops parvifolia, Br., Q.L., A.A.; M. kauki, L., Q.L. EUCALYPTUS TREES. 185 EBENACE. Diospyros rugosula, Br., N.A.; D. mabacea, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; D. megalocarpa, F. M., N.A.; D. fasciculosa, F. M., N. S.W., Q.L.; D. cupulosa, F. M., Q.L.; D. sericocarpa, F. M., Q.L.; D. Cargillia, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; D. pentamera, Woolls and Muell., N.S.W., Q.L.; D. humilis, F. M., Q.L., N.A.; D. geminata, F. M., Q.L. OLEACE®. Olea paniculata, Br., N.S.W., Q.L.; Chionanthus axillaris, Br., Q.L.; Notelea ligustrina, Vent., T., V., N.S. W. VERBENACE®. Clerodendron tomentosum, Br., N.S. = L.; C. lanceola- tum, F. M., N.A.; Vitex ie role. i Nes 5 OL cra IND AS seve acuminata, Br., Q. ee V. lignum re co ONES: W., ea: Ae Teiehhatdinn F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; V. macrophylla, Be moe L.; V. melicopea, F. a Orla v. glabrata Be Onl; Parddeya splendida, F. M., Q.L.; Preis acuminata, Br., N. ce P. Tracy- ana, F. M., Q.L.; Avicennia officinalis, L., W.A., S.A., V., N. S.W., Q.L., N.A.; Myoporum insulare, Br., S.A., T., V., N.S. A.; M. platycarpum, Br., §.A., V., N.S.W.; M. Cunninghami, Benth., S.A., V., N.S.W.; Eremophila ee PS EME, oe N.S.W., Q.L., C.A.; E. Mitchellii, Benth., N.S.W., Q. n Fi A.; E. alternifolia, Br., S.A., V., N.S. W.; E. papas’ ae S.A. V., N.S.W.; E. Monsioles Be Me: es SuAce VENA: F ie C.A. LABIAT. Prostanthera lasianthos, Lab., T., V., N.S. W. ASPERIFOLI®. Ehretia saligna, Br., N.A.; E. acuminata, Br., N.S.W., Q.L.; E. membranifolia, Br., Q.L.; E. pilosula, F. ree ote Conise dichotoma, Forst., Q.L., N.A. ACANTHACE®. Earlia excelsa, F. M., Q.L. BIGNONIACE®, Diplanthera tetraphylla, Banks & Sol., Q.L.; Dolichandra heterophylla, Fenzl., Q.L., N.A.; D. filiformis, Fenzl,, N.A. 12 186 FOREST CULTURE AND APOCYNEZ, Tabernemontana orientalis, Br., N.S.W., Q.L.; Lactaria calo- carpa, Hassk., Q.L.; L. Moorei, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; Alstonia constricta, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; A. scholaris, Br., Q.L.; A. ophioxyloides, F. M., Q.L., N.A.; Wrightia pubescens, Br., N. A.; Balfouria saligna, Br., Q.L., N.A., C.A. LOGANTACE, Gemostoma Australianum, F. M., Q.L. SOLANEA, Duboisia myoporoides, Br., N.S. W., Q.L.; Solanum verbasci- folium ts NESSWe,, QL. ITl.—_AMENTACE. CASUARIN &. Casuarina glauca, Sieb., S.A., V., N.S.W.; C. obesa, Migq., W.A.; C. torulosa, Ait., N.S.W.; C. quadrivalvis, Lab., S.A., T., V., N.S.W.; C. Cunninghami, Miq., N.S.W.; C. Huegelia- na, Miq., W.A.; C. trichodonta, Miq., W.A.; C. suberosa, Otto and Dietr., S.A., V., N.S.W.; C.-equisetifolia, Forst., N.S. W., Q.L., N.A.; C. leptoclada, Miq., V., N.S. W.; C. thujoides, Miq., W.A.; C. Decaisneana, F. M., C.A.; C. tenuissima, Sieb., V., N.S.W., Q. L.; C. Drummondii, Mig., W.A.; C. microstachya, Miq., W.A. CUPULIFER &. Fagus Cunnighami, Hook., T., V.; F. Gunnu, J. Hook., T.; F. Moorei, F. M., N.S. W. CONIFER.E, Araucaria Cunninghami, Ait., N.S.W., Q.L.; A. Bidwilli, Hook., Q.L.; A. Greyi, F. M., N.A.; Athrotaxis cupressoides, Don., T.; A. selaginoides, Don., T.; Callitris Macleayana, F. M., N.S.W.; C. Parlatorei, F. M., N.S.W., Q.L.; C. Actinostrobus F. M., W.A.; C. cupressiformis, Vent., T., V., N.S. W.; C. col- umellaris, F. M., N.S. W., Q.L.; C. Endlicheri, Parl., V., N.S. W., Q.L.; C. Gunnii, J. Hook., T., N.S.W.; C. verrucosa, Br., IW AROS o AL: Un; OV. UNESaWes Qal, SINAN CNAs Dacry dium. Franklinii, J. Hook., T.; Podocarpus elata, Br., N.S.W., Q.L.; EUCALYPTUS TREES. 187 P. Drouyniana, F. M., W.A.; P. spinulosa, Br., N.S.W.; P. al- pina, Br., T., V., N.S.W.; Phyllocladus rhomboidalis, Rich., T.; Ephedra arborea, F. M., Q.L., N.A. CYCADE®, Zamia Fraseri, Mig., W.A.; Z. Denisonii, F. M., N.S.W., Q. L.; Cycas media, Br., Q.L. MONOCOTYLEDONE.%. PANDANE, Pandanus pedunculatus, Br., N.S.W., Q.L.; P. spiralis, Br., N.A.; P. aquaticus, F. M., N.A. KINGIACE®. Kingia Australis, Br., W.A. PALM, Cocos nucifera, L., Q.L.; Caryota urens, L., Q.L., N.A.; Ptychosperma Seaforthia, Miq., N.S.W., Q.L.; P. Alexandra, F. M., Q.L.; Livistona Australis, Mart., V., N.S.W., Q.L.; L. inermis, Br., N.A. ACOTYLEDONEX. FILICES. Alsophila Leichhardtii, F. M., N.S.W.; A. Australis, Br., T., V., N.S.W., Q.L.; Cyathea medullaris, Sm., V.; C. Lindsay- ana, Hook., Q.L.; Dicksonica antarctica, Lab., S.A., T., V., N. Seer CORID AE The Monocotyledonous and Acotyledonous trees, not actually furnishing timber for ordinary purposes, might have been ex- cluded. Gomphandra Australiana, F. M., among Oleoinex, from Queensland, was casually omitted. THE PRINCIPAL TIMBER TREES READILY ELIGIBLE FOR VICTORIAN INDUSTRIAL CULTURE, with indications of their native countries and some of their technologic uses. AN ENUMERATION OFFERED BY FERD. von MUELLER, COyviEGe Mo). seh). SBOR Se. Beles... Han. Gass 1 WeNloZ.ss Commander of the Order of St. Jago, Vice-President of the Acclimation Society of Victoria. This enumeration originated in a desire of the writ- er to place before his fellow-colonists a succinct list of those trees which, in our geographic latitudes, can be grown to advantage. Calls for such information arose gradually in the department of the Botanic Garden of Melbourne, not merely because it impressed itself more and more on the mind of every thoughtful set- tler that the wanton waste of the native forests should be checked, but that also largely should be added to our timber riches by means of copious and multifari- ous introductions from abroad, and that for these in- troductions the widest possible scope should be allow- 190 FOREST CULTURE AND ed. Nevertheless, this list is far from claiming com- pleteness, either as a specific index or as a series of notes on the principal technologie applicability of the trees most accessible. Indeed, it may be regarded simply as a precursor of larger essays, such as the in- tended forest administration will gradually call forth. Meanwhile, however, this brief explanatory catalogue may facilitate locally that information which hitherto was afforded by the author’s correspondence chiefly. It seemed beyond the scope of this writing to tabu- late the trees here enumerated, in reference to climat- ic regions. The inhabitant of colder and moister mountains in this colony, or the settler in the hotter and more arid tracts of country, can readily foresee, from the brief geographic notes given with each tree, which kind should be chosen for the spot selected by him for wood - culture ; but if doubts in this respect should arise, the needful advice will readily be offer- ed by the writer. Though this list was originally prepared and allud- ed to as an appendage to a lecture* recently delivered at the Melbourne Industrial Museum, I was honored by my colleagues of the Council of the Acclimation Society in their giving publicity to thisdocument along with their last annual report, the Society being quite as anxious to foster the introduction and multiplica- tion of industrial plants as the continued acquisition and diffusion of foreign animals of utilitarian impor- tance. Unquestionably, also, the periodical issue of essays on animals and plants, to be introduced or to be dif- * The Application of Phytology to the Industrial Purposes of Life, EUCALYPTUS TREES. 191 fused, will give additional strength to the Society’s labors. Should, therefore, this small literary offer prove ac- ceptable to the supporters of the Victorian Acclima- tion Society, then the writer would feel sufficiently encouraged to offer, in a similar form, a list of other plants, recommendable here for more general cultiva- tion ; and, although such indices only to some extent contain original research, they are likely to bring to- gether information more condensed and more recent than would be attainable in costly or voluminous works of even several languages, and yet such treat- ing, perhaps, of countries with far narrower climatic zones than ours. ’ Possibly this publication may aid us also to render known our colonial requirements thus far abroad, while it will offer, likewise, some information to speed interchanges, For our Industrial Museum and such similar insti- tutions as doubtless, ere long, on a limited scale, will be connected with each Mechanics’ Institute, this un- pretentious treatise may help to explain the real wealth which we possess in our unfortunately almost unguard- ed forests, or point out the manifold new treasures which we should raise independently in our wood- lands, while also these pages might stimulate both public and private efforts to provide, by timely thoughtfulness, those increased timber resources without which the next generations of this land can be neither hale nor prosperous. 192 FOREST CULTURE AND I.—CONIFEROUS TREES. Araucaria Bidwilli, Hook.—Bunya-Bunya. South- ern Queensland. A tree one hundred and fifty feet in height, with a fine-grained, hard, and durable wood ; the seeds are edible. : Arauearia Brasiliensis, A. Rich. — Brazilian Pine. A tree, one hundred feet high, producing edible seeds. Ought to be tried in our fern gullies. Araucaria Cookii, R, Br.—In New Caledonia, where it forms large forests. Height of tree, two hundred feet. Araucaria Cunninghami, Ait.—Moreton-Bay Pine. East Australia, between fourteen degrees and thirty- five degrees 8. latitude. The tree gets one hundred and thirty feet high. The timber is used for ordinary furniture. Araucaria excelsa, R. Br.—Norfolk Island Pine. -— A magnificent tree, sometimes two hundred and twen- ty feet high, with a stem attaining ten feet in diame- ter. The timber is useful for ship-building and many other purposes. Araucaria imbricata, Pay.—Chile and Patagonia. The male tree attains only a height of fifty feet, but the female reaches one hundred and fifty feet. It furnishes a hard and durable timber, as well as an abundance of edible seeds, which constitute a main article of food of the natives. Highteen good trees will yield enough for a man’s sustenance all the year round. In our lowlands of comparative slow growth, but likely of far more rapid development, if planted in our ranges. Callitris quadrivalvis, Vent. — North Africa. A middling-sized tree, yielding the true Sandarac resin. EUCALYPTUS TREES. 193 Cephalotaxus Fortunei, Hook.—China and Japan. This splendid yew attains a height of sixty feet, and is very hardy. Cryptomeria Japonica, Don.—Japan and Northern China.