Whether the coniferous trees of California or the myrtaceous trees of Australia rank
as the most colossal of the globe is yet a question open for discussion. Lately a
tree of
(the peppermint, and also the drooping gum-tree of Tasmania) was measured in the
deep recesses of Dandenong by Mr. D. Boyle,
of Nunawading, who found the length from the base of the stem to where the upper
part of the branches had broken to be 392ft. Comparing trees uninjured, he assumes
that about 30ft. have to be added as a fair estimate to length of the tree before
it dropped, giving thus the stupendous height of about 420ft. for this colossal species,
while 450ft. is the greatest and exceptional height on record of the Californian
. It may be remembered that the spire of the cathedral of Strasbourg, the highest
in the globe) reaches to 466ft.
It would be interesting if measurements were made by residents in various parts of
Australia of the particular kinds of trees of their neighbourhood, of whatever kinds
such trees may be, in order that they may be recorded before the trees themselves
sink under the axe of the woodcutter, and finally become annihilated. Where the trees,
as in most parts of Victoria, are gregarious, no fear of their annihilation exists,
but where, as throughout nearly the whole of the littoral tract of East Australia,
the forest consists of a miscellaneous mass of trees, the rarer kinds are certain
to be obliterated in time from the face of the globe, and the most stately individuals
of each kind are generally certain to sink first. It needs no remark that all such
measurements should be actual ones. A request to this effect was made through the pages of this journal long since,
but it remained almost totally unresponded to; nor has the wish expressed simultaneously
received much attention, that residents throughout Australia might aid the laborious
task of elucidating the vegetation of Australia by forming local collections of dry
plants of any kind, but more particularly of the eucalypts, in order that in the work under progress
the range of the species and the sum of their characters might be more fully recorded.
This is, as regards the eucalyptus, all the more needed now, as they have been found
to yield remuneratively so many highly valuable articles for industry, such as fibre
for paper, tar, spirit, acetic and tannic acid, dye material, oil (both from leaves
and bark), and other substances calculated to add to the riches of the country, and
especially to the prosperity of the working classes, for lengthened periods.
