EUCALYPTUS. This genus of lofty trees ill found in the ItIalay Peninsula, but it is chiefly in Austmlia, where the munerous species occur in great profusion, and, with the leafless acacia trees, give a most remarkable character to the scenery. Several eucalypti have been introduced into India, and are growing on the Neilgherry Hills. Their Australian names—blue, grey, spotted gum trees, etc., iron-bark, stringy bark, blood-wood, box, peppermint, swamp ash, mahogany trees, etc.— are terms which vary in each district. Many of them yield a timber tougher and more durable for shipbuilding than either oak or teak, and not liable to injury from salt water or white anta. An essential oil is extracted from the leaves of one variety, the E. robusta, which was pronounced not unlike cajaputi, and very fragmut. All the varieties tried on the Neilgherries have succeeded, on every description of soil, from the swamp to the poorest clay, at all elevations, but also with a rate of growth little short of miraculou.s, a foot per mensern, whereas hard woods in Britain progress at the rate of one foot annually. House holders on the Neilgherries are now covering their compounds with the eucalypti, and with that pretty Australian favourite the Acacia melanoxylon, which is BO invaluable as a source of fuel ; for, liko the perennial grasses, the more it is cut the better it grows. E. acmenoides, amygdalina or white peppermint tree or ash tree, botryoides, calophylla or red gum tree, citriodora, coriaeea, cornuta or yate tree, corymbosa or blood-wood tree, diversicolor or karri, doratoxylon or spear tree, eugenioidcs, ficifolia, globulus or blue gum tree, g?mphoeephala or tooart, goniocalyx, henuphloa or box tree, leucoxylon or iron-hark tree, loxophleba or York gum tree, macrorrhyncha or stringy .bark tree, rnaculata or spotted gum tree, margmata or jarrah or tnahogany tree, melanophloia or iron - bark tree, meliodora or yellow box tree, microcorys or stringy bru-k tree, microtheca, obliquoa or stringy bark tree, oleosa or malice, paniculata or white iron - bark tree, pheentcea, pilularis or black butt tree, poalyphylla, poly authemos or red box, raveretiana grey gum tree or iron gum tree, redunca or white gum tree, resinifem, robusta, rostrata or reil gum tree, salmonophloia or salmon-barked gum tree, saliqua or white or grey gum tree, salubris or gmilet wood or fluted g-um tree, sideropidoia or white iron-bark tree, Stuartiana, tereticornis or red guin tree, terminalis or blood - wood tree, tesselaris, viminalis or manna gum tree, virgata or stringy bark tree. The useful products to be obtained
from these trees are very numerous, and include, in addition to timber and potash, oils, tars, acids, dyes, and tans.
E. globulus has acquired a high reputation for rendering habitable localities which were previously the unhealthy seats of malaria. In Algeria and ' Portugal are valleys which only a few years since were most unhealthy, but which h ave been rendered salubrious by the planting of some of these trees ; while a striking example of their fever-preventing properties is furnished by the re-habitation of a deserted cluster of monastic buildings in the most desolate part of the Campagna, about three miles from Rome. This was effected by some Trappist monks, who planted, six years since, groves of the eucalyptus. For centuries the fever-stricken monks had battled against the malaria, until, towards the close of the last century, the monastery was deserted. Its leaves have been recommended as a febrifuge ; but the Government Quinologist informed the Madras Government that he had examined the bark and leaves of the Eucalyptus globulus, and had satisfied himself that neither quinine, quinidine, cinchonidine, nor cinchonine is contained in the plant in any proportion.
Eucalyptus Oil is a volatile oil obtained from the foliage of all the species of Eucalyptus, from 0-5 to 3-3 per cent. For select varnishes, it dissolves camphor, pine resins, elemi, sandarac, kauri, dam mer, asphalte, xanthorrhcea resin, dragon's blood, benzol, copal, amber anime, shell-lac, caoutchouc, wax, etc.—.P. von 'Mueller ; G. Bennett ; O'Sh.; Simmonds ; Eng. Cyc.