AN INDIAN NATURALIST^ TRIP TO AUSTRALIA. 227 



varying from twenty to thirty feet, and often attaining a height over 

 eighty feet. There is not a prettier sight in Victoria, and indeed 

 the whole of Australasia, than what are called the Fcru-gullics, which 

 abound in these beautiful feathery palm -like ferns, waving their 

 fronds in mid-air with all the gorgeous green a mild shy and 

 moderately humid air engonders. Dlchsonia ant art ic a and Also'phila 

 Australis are the two most common varieties of Tree-Ferns in Victoria. 

 The former grows in shady places where there is abundance of run- 

 ning water, and is known as the Woolly tree-fern; the latter is called 

 the mountain or hill tree-fern, and is seen in more open spaces, such 

 as the ridges of hills, where it displays its beautiful fronds to the sun 

 direct. TuJea barbara is another remarkable fern which attracts our 

 attention in the fern-gullies of Victoria. It seldom grows more than 

 four or five feet high, and has a short thick stem about as many feet 

 in circumference, frequently weighing as many as fourteen or fifteen 

 hundredweights ! About the end of January last, in the hottest time 

 of the year in Australia, I paid a visit to Fernshaw, one ofthepret-" 

 tiest fern -gullies — I should say one of the prettiest and yet grandest 

 fern-forests of Victoria. It was one mass of delicious gorgeous green 

 with the shady beech and the blue gum towering in mid-air, the 

 lovely silver wattle, the modest musk, and the stately cotton-wood — 

 the largest composite ever seen anywhere, adding to the scene a 

 variety of foliage, thus making it all the more attractive to the eye, 

 and heightening the effect of the valley as a whole. All these trees 

 fringing and filling fully the magnificent hill from the Black Spur 

 at the top to the crystal pool at the foot of the valley, set off the 

 emerald fronds of the Woolly tree-fern {Dichsonia} in the most striking 

 manner. The stream of water is perennial, crystal clear to the eye, 

 cool to the touch, and delicious to the taste. Its perpetual music 

 imparts a softness to the sylvan solitude, which else might be awful ; 

 its constant fresh accession of undefiled water to the valley enlivens 

 the scene and brightens its velvet-verdure, which constitutes the 

 sole charm of this happy and secluded valley within easy reach of 

 Victorian travellers. In walking through this beautiful sequestered 

 spot, damp and covered with dead and decaying foliage, the traveller 

 must take care that his lower extremities do not get attacked by 

 minute leeches, whose hair-like bodies often escape the unsuspecting 

 eye and even elude the cautiousness of the wary wanderer of these 

 quiet regions. The Dieksonia has its own parasites and epiphytes in 

 the shape of numerous fungi, mosses, club mosses, and smaller ferns, 

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