EUCALYPTUS GUNNII, OR CIDER GUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2004, 21 July 1892, Page 5

EUCALYPTUS GUNNII, OR CIDER GUM.

Mr Waugh, Corporation gardener at Invercargill, has been contributing a series of articles on trees in the Invercargill reserves to the Southland Times. In No. 3of the series some interesting remarks on the Eucalyptus gunnii are made, which we reproduce below : —

We have four varieties of this tree in our reserves — that is to say, there are four kinds which resemble one another in flower and fruit, but are very different in foliage and otherwise. The kind which is best known in Invercargill as cider gum is quite hardy as far as frost is concerned. It comes from the mountains of Tasmania, where the snow lies two or three months every winter. We got the seed of it from the Mararoa Plains station, from trees which were grown by Mr Butler, the first owner. Before going any further, I may explain that it is only the very hardy mountain gums which will succeed inlnvercargill. The half-hardy sorts, which include the wellknown blue gum, the stringy bark, peppermint gum, and others, can be grown in a kind of way, but are apt to get frosted in very severe winters, and I do not recommend them. We have also tried a great many of what may be called the tender kinds, Baron Mueller having kept us well supplied with packets of seed. These kinds include the red gum, iron bark, jarrah, and other famous timber or oil-producing trees. Many of them never got beyond the seed beds, having been frosted the first winter. Besides the four varieties of cider gum we have eight distinct species which will stand frost, but as the names of some are a little uncertain, and the seeds of others scarce, I only mention eucalyptus urnigera and E. coccifera. For a good many years I have advised the settlers of Southland to grow the mountain gums. There is money in them, more than in any other tree that will succeed here. Ido not go the length of saying that bridge-building timber can be produced, nor that oil can be extracted from them, for the trees which will fulfil all these conditions can only be grown in the North Island, but I do say that for quickly producing fencing posts and timber useful for many purposes, the gums are the thing. Every part of the tree can bo used, the very leaves and bark being splendid for kindling. At the same time they make good shelter, although not equal to Pinus insignis. As far as ornamentation goes I think they are a great acquisition. It would never do to have every plantation simply a dark mass of pines. In France, Italy, and California, the gums have been extensively grown of late years, for the sake of their timber, their oil, and their sanitary properties, and even in Britain, owing to the present eucalyptus oil craze, great attention is being paid to them. A few years ago the blue gum, grown as a greenhouse plant, was almost the only kind known in Britain, but now the hardy kinds are being tried in various places. Our experiments here have acquired a fresh value as showing what kinds can be grown in temperate climates. We have no fever swamps sending forth malarial exhalations, but for all that we have many pieces of wet ground which would be benefited by a few gums, and no one need be afraid of their dead leaves, for they contain a great quantity of tannin and act rather as a disinfectant. The gums are not subject to any disease ; they never blow over ; they will spring up again if cub down ; burning will hardly kill them ; ring barking requires to be very deep to do them much harm. If gums or any other quick-growing trees are planted to shelter fruit trees, there ought to be a space left vacant of half a chain or more, to be ploughed every year, to cut the roots ; or, better still, a ditch might be dug and cleaned out every year, to prevent the roots getting through. They do not stand the operation of transplanting so well as the pines, being in this respect more like Cupressus macrocarpa, and like it, should be frequently transplanted or cut under whilst in the nursery rows. They

should be planted out in August or September. The beginning of October is the best time to sow the seeds. The seed being very small should be just covered, and that is all, with soil. To prevent the seed running too deeply into the soil of itself, the drill for sowing it in should be beaten down with the back of the rake or a piece of wood, and after the seed is sown a little earth should be sprinkled on with the hand. To touch it with a tool would ruin the whole thing. To get the seed out the pods require to be well dried either in the sun or over a steam boiler. A small quantity can be done in a colonial oven when the fire is low. The ripe seeds are those furthest from the ends of the branches. On the cider gum at this time of the year (July) there are, first, at or near the extremities of the branches the buds which have not flowered ; second, a little further back, those which flowered in August or September 1891 ; third, still back and nearest the main branches, those which flowered in 1890. These last only are the pods which contain ripe seeds. The leaves of a gum tree are very different looking in a young state from what they are when the tree grows up, so much so that many people think we have the red gum in the reserves, when it is only a few of the blue gums in a grown-up state. Some one in Queensland thinks ho has discovered that gum leaves and branches laid under fruit trees will keep away blight. There might be something in it in Queensland, with their hot sun stimulating and perfecting the kinds which produce much oil, but here it would be simply nonsense to try such a thing. An infusion of the leaves and fruit may be used, however, for cleaning tender greenhouse plants.