CoLENSO. — Bush Notes. 481 



The myriad flowers of all those Httle plants are all scent- 

 less, or nearly so ; but not so these of the dwarf perennial 

 Leucopogon that is found growing intermixed with them, but 

 mostly in large, distinct, irregular patches, arising from its 

 creeping underground roots. This is a dear little semi-shrubby 

 plant, with needle-like tips to its small, neat, close, and regular 

 leaves, which have also minutely-serrulate edges (a beautiful 

 object under a magnif ying-glass) , each short erect stem, or 

 branch, of lin.-2in. bearing many sweet-smelling flowers that 

 sometimes form a little whorl, diffusing a delightful odour ex- 

 tending to some distance, and serving to betray its source. 

 Wordsworth truly says, " The flower of sweetest smell is shy 

 and lowly." This dwarf shrub also bears a small dark-orange 

 globular fruit (like a little fairy-like cherry), which is edible, 

 and conttiins one wee stone. Another scented plant is the 

 elegant-leaved umbelliferous Oreomyrrliis, which displays its 

 dark-purple stems and pinnated leaves in a small rtidiating 

 circle closely appressed to the ground, or more commonly to 

 the fa\-\ n-coloured moss which closely invests it; these are 

 always easily detected by their pleasing dark colour. The 

 whole of this pretty plant is equally scented, and the odour, 

 though strong, is not unpleasant. It is not, however, com- 

 mon, though perennial, and is mostly found scattered, yet 

 sometimes several plants are found growing together. 



All those plants (with many others) are generally accom- 

 panied by several small, thick-growing, tufted, and creeping 

 mosses of various species, and forms, and colours, mostly 

 barren, yet sometimes found in fruit ; with here and there, 

 occasionally, a small specimen of that curiously-formed plant 

 and fern ally, Ophioglosswu, with its single leaf and curious 

 erect <=p:ke : all which greatly enhance the beauty of the 

 humble and lowly floral scene. 



To me, the meanest flower that blows can give 

 Thoughts that too often lie too deep for tears. 



Wordswo7-th. 



There is still another and deeper consideration that finds 

 its way into the intelligent botanist's mind when pondering 

 over those little plants — viz., that the same or very similar 

 species of some of these small and peculiar genera are only 

 found in far-off isolated spots, distant also from each other — 

 as the Andes from Mexico to Chili, Cape Horn and Fuegia, 

 certain mountains in Australia and Tasmania, and those speck- 

 like islets (Campbell's Island and Lord Auckland's Islands) in 

 the Antarctic Ocean. The due and fair consideration of these 

 facts serves to raise up thoughts almost boundless in the mind 

 — thoughts, questions, seekings which cannot at present be 

 reasonably solved. 

 31 



