The lad was allowed to run on, and he delivered his little botanical lecture with great animation. Cyrus Harding listened smiling, and Pencroft with an indescribable feeling of pride.
"Very good, Herbert," replied Pencroft, "but I could swear that all those useful specimens you have just told us about are none of them giants like these!"
"That is true, Pencroft."
"That supports what I said," returned the sailor, "namely, that these giants are good for nothing!"
"There you are wrong, Pencroft," said the engineer; "these gigantic eucalypti, which shelter us, are good for something."
"And what is that?"
"To render the countries which they inhabit healthy. Do you know what they are called in Australia and New Zealand?"
"No, captain."
"They are called 'fever trees.'"
"Because they give
