4 ROUND-THE-WORLD BOTANICAL EXCURSION 425 



Other things might he mentioned to show that in the strenuous ma- 

 terial development, the humanities have not been forgotten. 



Naturally, as soon as I arrived in Sydney, I went to Professor 

 Maiden, the director of the Botanic Gardens, well known to botanists 

 by his work on Eucalyptus, the most characteristic of all Australian 

 trees. I had expected to get from him some information and advice, 

 but I was entirely unprepared for the splendid hospitality and gen- 

 erous assistance which I received and am still receiving, for he not only 

 gave me valuable material from the garden and sent a competent col- 

 lector to accompany me during my trips in the vicinity, but he has 

 had the histologist of the gardens prepare some of my material for 

 future use. 



In many ways, the gardens at Sydney surpass any I had ever seen, 

 and I have seen the gardens at Kew and Berlin. Palms from Mexico, 

 Chili, the West Indies, the South Sea Islands and other places, grow 

 as well here as they do in their native haunts (Fig. 5). Here, too, are 

 tree ferns and other ferns, and gorgeous flowering trees like the flame 

 tree (Poinciana regia) with its ffaming red flowers, and Jacarandra 

 mimosccfolia, a Brazilian tree fifty feet high and bearing great clusters 

 of lilac-colored flowers before the leaves appear. Characteristic of all 

 the Australian gardens are the various species of Araucaria and Agath is. 

 Most of these beautiful trees, shrubs and ferns are too large to be 

 grown effectively in a greenhouse and can not be grown out of doors 

 in our latitude on account of the cold winters, so we can never hope to 

 see in this country a garden like that at Sydney. 



In addition to the botanical display there are numerous statues. 

 The judgment displayed in their selection is beyond criticism, for you 

 see no crude productions of local genius, but classics, like Castor and 

 Pollux, the Farnese Hercules, the Discobolus, and others of equal merit. 



An excellent museum and a large herbarium, devoted principally 

 to Australian material, add to the scientific value of the gardens. 



Three genera of cycads grow in Australia, Cycas, Macrozamia and 

 Bowcnia, the first ranging from Japan to Australia, and the other two 

 being confined to Australia. The cycads in the gardens include all the 

 genera of the family, except Microcycas, and the collection of Macro- 

 zamia is, beyond doubt, the finest in the world. After studying this 

 splendid collection and spending a day at Avoca, where Macrozamia 

 spiralis forms such dense thickets that one can hardly crowd his way 

 through, I went to Brisbane, 725 miles north of Sydney, but still 100 

 miles south of the Tropic of Capricorn. 



Here, again, I sought the botanical gardens, and at once met Mr. F. 

 M. Bailey, the government botanist, author of the Queensland Flora. 

 Although more than eighty } r ears old, he is still at work and was able 

 to describe accurately the habitats of all the Queensland cycads. His 



