i £l 
- 
53 
This is a country of hills, fringed to the very top, and per- 
haps about the thickest vegetation in the world. All is ever- 
green, and one dense mass of gloom. At first sight it is 
sombre enough, but like a dark beauty it has its charms. 
The wood is chiefly “ gum” (Eucalyptus), growing to an 
immense height, and throwing its long white arms about in 
a wild Salvator style. The young “gums” are beautiful, 
and their new shoots of reddish brown lightening into a paler 
hue, and deepening into myrtle green, with the light new 
shoots of the ‘ wattle” (Acacia), give a rich beauty of co- 
louring, delightful to the eye of a painter. Nature here must 
be painted to the life, there is nothing to soften. 
** There is a harshness and dryness in the texture of 
vegetation here that is very peculiar; even their kangaroo 
grass (Anthistiria australis), which is considered so nourish- 
ing, is hard and hairy, or rather wiry. The flowering shrubs 
are extremely pretty, but the flowers are very small. The 
Epacris impressa is in great quantities every where; but 
Heaths have not as yet been successfully cultivated here, and 
there are none native. The soil is very dry. But cultiva- 
tion of any kind is only creeping in; a Horticultural Society 
has this last year been formed at Launceston, and it is to 
be hoped knowledge and emulation may thus be excited ; 
hitherto sheep, sheep, from one end of the country to the 
other, with little more cultivation than each farm requires, 
land cheap, and labour dear, have caused this state of 
things: but the minimum price of land is now raised, and 
most of it is so bad that its value is far below that. Settlers 
must now rent from the great landholders, and the resources 
of the country must be made available. With science and 
judgment every thing and any thing may be done here : 
wherever English trees are planted there they flourish, but 
they are few and far between. The Sweetbriar is now 
seen in the woods, and grows to an immense size. The 
quantity of flowers and fruit, such as they are, is beyond 
belief, but there are none of the best kinds. Think of grafts 
here bearing the first year: an earnest of what might be. 
I succeeded in bringing here alive, but in bad health, the 
Lilies of the. Valley which you gave me; four leaves are 
green, the only morsel in the Southern hemisphere.” 
