Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 12.djvu/689

Rh The one best known in experiments at acclimatizing is the blue-gum. We have followed its growth from seeds planted by ourselves. Last October we saw in the back-yard of Dr. R. E. Kunzè, of this city, a eucalypt scarcely a year old, and over twelve feet in height. For four or five months it averaged an inch a day. Blue-gums but seven years from the seed have been known to reach a height of sixty-five feet, with a girth of stem near the ground of forty-five inches.

But, for all this rapidity of growth, the young eucalypt seems to be doggedly resolved that for some years at least it shall resemble its parent in no particular save one, namely, the aromatic odor of its leaves.

Suppose we compare Figs. 3 and 4, the one representing a young eucalypt, and the other an adult—that is, one old enough to bear flowers and seeds. Notice the stem of the young tree, Fig. 4, that it



is square, or four-sided, like those of the labiates, or Mint family of plants. On each side of this square stem is a depression, within which the leaf is attached, which, technically, may be said to be amplexicaul, or embracing, as it half surrounds the stem, and this at some disadvantage, since the attachment is not at the angle, but flush upon the side of the stem. The leaf is sessile, having no appreciable petiole or foot-stalk. And the leaves are opposite, so that each pair is set at right angles, or crosswise to the pair next below it or next above it. And the leaves are cordate, or heart-shaped, being deeply