286 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 



Its leaves are from 'eight to twelve inches^^long, perfectly 

 cylindrical and attenuated at each extremity — these were in- 

 serted upon long slender almost filiform stems, tiie whole 

 being supported by strong thick roots which adhere firmly 

 to the branches of the trees, from whence these plants swing 

 in the breeze perfectly unencumbered and clear of the stems. 

 A climbing rooting-stemmed plant adhering to the trunks of 

 the tree-ferns is very general in these shaded woods, where 

 it covers also fallen timber. I was fortunate in detecting it 

 in fruit and flower; it belongs to that division of Bignoni- 

 acecCf of Jussieu, producing baccate fruit.* The Filicef are 

 numerous and curious, — I saw none, however, other than 

 those species of which I had gathered specimens in 1818, at 

 the Five Islands. The soil of these shades is a ftit argilla- 

 ceous loam, blended with much decomposed vegetable matter. 

 In this earth I remarked partially buried large blocks of a 

 compact whinstone in no regular form ; and in the banks of 

 the water-gullies, I traced abundance of slate in apparently 

 horizontal laminae. Fresh water percolates through the soil 

 into these gullies everywhere, and although impregnated with 

 iron, was of a good quality for our general purposes. About 

 1 P.M., we continued our route along the line of marked 

 trees, which led us by a winding course through the darkest 

 parts of the forest, over the mountain to its north-western 

 declivity, about a mile and a half beyond the encamping spot 

 we had left. Lofty densely timbered mountainous ranges 

 now appeared before us peering over each other, lying in no 

 regular series of order, but assuming an aspect so formidable 

 by their perpendicular faces overhanging deep ravines, as to 

 seem to defy all further attempt to penetrate westerly. How- 

 ever, we traced our way by the line of trees down the decliv- 

 ity, which every step became more and more dangerous, by 

 reason of the loose fragments of sandstone and shelving 

 rocks, which were thickly strewed on the surface. In spite 



* Fieldia australis, A. Cuiiii. Field's New South Wales, p. 363, t. 

 2, fi-, 4. Hook. Ex. Fl. t. 232. 



