By JOSEPH LAUTEEER, M.D. 61 



to the residence of the President in the castle on Chapultepec, 

 the "hill of the grasshopper," is shaded on both sides by 

 gigantic specimens of Kucahiptus (jlobulus. No shade however 

 reaches the avenue. In Santiago de Chile, a bald Andesite-hill 

 has been transformed into a splendid public garden with walks, 

 rockeries, carriage drives, and shrub-covered romantic paths. 

 Monuments as well as a theatre are there, and a magnificent view 

 is laid out to the eye from the top. About thirty years ago the 

 hill-sides were covered with young trees of EHcali/jitus ;/lolnUtis. 

 These have grown so high that they obstruct the view. In the 

 Clifi'house Gardens in San Francisco it was just the same, the 

 Eucalyptshaverunupsohigh. The gardener remedied it by cutting 

 their heads of, but the trees look mutilated in the dense globe of 

 branches with gray green, opposite, obtuse leaves, like they come 

 out on shoots of young plants. Another friend from Australia 

 is met with before the Cathedral of Santiago de Chile. It is 

 Casuarina gnadrivalvis, looking well and delighting a botanist's 

 ■eye. Not so the Australian wattles, which, in the Golden Gate 

 Park in San Francisco, are mixed with very similar wattles from 

 the Pacific coast, driving a botanist to desperation. The best 

 Australian wattle tree abroad is Acacia dcalbata, with globular 

 fragrant fiower-heads and del'cate bipinnate leaves. It grows 

 as well on the plateau of Mexico as it does on the elevated 

 country behind the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. 

 Other Australian Acacias which I found to be in favour were 

 Acacia decurrens , A . Cunnim/liami (one of the nicest of the Brisbane 

 species), A. restita and A. vernicifina. All European greenhouses 

 are full of them. Our maiden-hair ferns [Adiantum. fonnosum, 

 A. aethiopicum and A. hispiduliwi ), as well as the spleen wort 

 { Aspleniuin falcatum J, are favourites everywhere. The fern tree 

 I Alsophila australisj adorns open gardens in the warm countries, 

 and hot houses in Europe and North America. Aneilema 

 gramineum , a common bush plant round Brisbane, is to be seen 

 as a pot plant in Germany. So is Arthropod ium laxuni, a small 

 liliaceous plant, and not at all ornamental. Our nice bush 

 lilies {^Dianella coerulea, Geitonoplesium cyvwsum, Anrpnllaria 

 dioica, Bulbine bulbosa , Tlujsanotus Patersoni with pretty fringed 

 petals) are to be met with in the gardens every where. Cordi/line 

 mistralis, with slender stems, grows in the open air in San 

 Francisco. The fleshy roots make propagation easy. 



As a rule the Australian plants are very difficult to shift. 

 Taken out of their home, they decline to grow again. There 



