240 TREES. [1839. 



varieties are used in fencing and ship-building. The pine is 

 equal to maple, and is used for cabinet work. The white 

 cedar (melia cozedarach) is the only deciduous tree yet 

 known: it attains a vast size, and is used for making shin- 

 gles and cabinet work. The she-oak, and swamp oak, are 

 applied to the same purposes, and the turpentine wood is made 

 use of in boat-building. There is another valuable tree, 

 called the miniosa, or black wattle, the bark of which is ex- 

 ported to England for tanning. 



Of the medicinal trees, the peppermint, sassafras, and cas- 

 tor-oil tree, are the most conspicuous. The timber of the first 

 two is also held in considerable estimation. There is also a 

 tree called the tea-tree, the leaves of which are used instead 

 of those of the Chinese plant, and make a very potable bev- 

 erage. 



An unusually large growth is characteristic of all the Aus- 

 tralian trees, except in the deserts of the interior, where 

 clumps of stunted bushes are sometimes seen, and the occa- 

 sional tracts in the coast country, which are covered with 

 dwarf shrubs, known among the colonists by the name of 

 "scrub." 



A stranger, on entering an Australian forest for the first 

 time, is forcibly impressed with its grandeur and sublimity. 

 He seems to have crossed the hallowed precincts of some 

 Druid shrine, or entered the mighty portals of some ancient 

 temple — a relic of ages long since numbered with the past. 

 The huge bolls of the trees appear like pillars supporting the 

 fretted dome above, and each step along the dim aisles, 



" Brown with o'erarching shades," 



conducts him nearer the high altar to which they lead. And 

 if, perchance, the babbling of the fountain, or the soft mur- 

 murs of the shaded rivulet, are heard in the distance, their 

 strains sound like choral symphonies, and the illusion is com- 

 plete. 



Sometimes, also, feelings of melancholy are produced. 

 These are naturally inspired by the dark and sombre hue of 



