282 SCIENTIFIC EXCURSIONS IN NEW HOLLAND. 
to the genera of fossil Ferns already described. In the sand- 
stone may be seen Ferns, Equisetaceæ, Calamites, and trunks 
of trees; this formation bears the action of the atmosphere 
better than the argillaceous schist, which quickly falls 
to powder. North east of Glendon runs a range of hills 
and mountains of a totally different structure, they consist of 
porphyritie field spar, of which I do not remember to have 
ever seen specimens in the Museum. I think these hills are 
raised by the puddingstone, sand-stone and a conglomerate, 
which is rendered very hard by the igneous rock. 
Northward, about thirty-six English miles from Glendon, 
we come again upon puddingstone, and mountains of 
basaltic formation, where I frequently saw imperfect zoolites. 
I explored Mount Royal, a spur of these mountains, attaining 
a height of three thousand feet, and itself one of the loftiest 
in this part of the colony. The centre and highest portion 
is basaltic, and the shoulders of sand-stone. The eastern 
declivity is covered with a most peculiar vegetation, called in 
the colony, Mountain Brush; and, in my opinion, much 
allied to the virgin forests of South America. The beautiful 
description by Mr. Waterton, in his Wanderings in South 
America, is applicable, word for word, to the Mountain Brush 
on Mount Royal, and equally so to the brushes on Bunya- - 
Bunya. This author seems as if he might have had Mount 
Royal in his eye when he speaks of the variety of trees 
aggregated in a narrow area, rising to a great height before 
they ramify ; and intertwined by equally diversified climbers, 
which latter ascend to the summit of the trees, and there 
display their foliage and flowers. So again, herbaceous 
plants are never seen in the interior of the brush, they are 
confined to its skirts, or spring up in open spaces; em 
light can penetrate, and the air have free circulation. The 
Ferns are remarkably numerous and diversified, and it was 1? 
the small ravines at the foot of this mountain, where the 
vegetable soil is mixed with decomposed basalt, that J 
gathered specimens of Alsophila from individuals fifteen feet 
high and nearly a foot thick. The Brushes yielded me aP 
