53 



This is a country of hills, fringed to the very top, and per- 

 haps about the thickest vegetation in the world. All is ever- 

 green, and one dense mass of gloom. At first sight it is 

 sombre enough, but like a dark beauty it has its charms. 

 The wood is chiefly " gum" (Eucalyptus), growing to an 

 immense height, and throwing its long white arms about in 

 a wild Salvator style. The young "gums" are beautiful, 

 and their new shoots of reddish brown lightening into a paler 

 hue, and deepening into myrtle green, with the light new 

 shoots of the "wattle" (Acacia), give a rich beauty of co- 

 louring, delightful to the eye of a painter. Nature here must 

 be painted to the life, there is nothing to soften. 



" There is a harshness and dryness in the texture of 

 vegetation here that is very peculiar ; even their kangaroo 

 grass (Anthistiriaaustralis), which is considered so nourish- 

 ing, is hard and hairy, or rather wiry. The flowering shrubs 

 are extremely pretty, but the flowers are very small. The 

 Epacris impressa is in great quantities every where ; but 

 Heaths have not as yet been successfully cultivated here, and 

 there are none native. The soil is very dry. But cultiva- 

 tion of any kind is only creeping in ; a Horticultural Society 

 has this last year been formed at Launceston, and it is to 

 be hoped knowledge and emulation may thus be excited ; 

 hitherto sheep, sheep, from one end of the country to the 

 other, with little more cultivation than each farm requires, 

 land cheap, and labour dear, have caused this state of 

 things : but the minimum price of land is now raised, and 

 most of it is so bad that its value is far below that. Settlers 

 must now rent from the great landholders, and the resources 

 of the country must be made available. With science and 

 judgment every thing and any thing may be done here : 

 wherever English trees are planted there they flourish, but 

 they are few and far between. The Sweetbriar is now 

 seen in the woods, and grows to an immense size. The 

 quantity of flowers and fruit, such as they arc, is beyond 

 belief, but there are none of the best kinds. Think of grafts 

 here bearing the first year: an earnest of what might be. 

 I succeeded in bringing here alive, but in bad health, the 

 Lilies of the Valley which you gave me; four leaves are 

 green, the only morsel in the Southern hemisphere." 



