28 Rev. D. Landsborough on Australian [sess. li. 



height of more than 8 feet the stem separates into four 

 smaller stems, and about 2 feet higher one of these parts 

 into two, so that in all there are five stems at the top. 

 Including leaves, it is fully 20 feet in height. Last year 

 (1885) it bore four immense spikes of bloom, and matured 

 abundance of seed. Some of it was sent to the Botanic 

 Garden, Edinburgh, from which it was distributed by Mr 

 Lindsay over Britain, in the hope that, being native, plants 

 raised from it would prove hardy. It has not bloomed this 

 year. It is less than twenty years since it was raised by 

 Lady Campbell from seed. 



Another remarkable plant is Pittosporum tenuifolium. It 

 is 16 feet 2 inches in height, and the stem near the ground 

 is 1 foot 10| inches in girth. It blooms abundantly. The 

 flowers are dusky crimson in hue and sweetly perfumed. A 

 plant of P. undulatum (the lemon-scented Pittosporum) grows 

 beside the other, but has not yet bloomed. 



A high wall is covered with an Australian Convolvulus 

 (C. Turguriorum). The leaves are small, but the flowers, 

 which are white, are of the size of those of Calystcgia srjrium. 

 The Australian Solanum aviculare also grows on the same wall. 

 The New Zealand tea plant {Echvardsia micwphylla) has 

 l)loomed in the greenhouse ; there are also in the open air a 

 1)1 ue and a red gum. These grow freely till they overtop 

 the wall which protects tlicni from the sea blast, but when 

 exposed to it they perish. 



Balliiiakill, tlie residence of William Mackinnon, Esq., is 

 situated on the north-east of Cantyre, and about parallel to 

 the north of Arran. The house is surrounded by carefully 

 cultivated woods, wliich give shelter to more delicate plants. 

 Here tlie urn-bearing gum {Eucalyptus urnigcra) is 3 feet 5 

 inches liigli ; the little blue gum {E. coccifera) also 3 feet 5 

 inches high ; and the cider gum {E. Gunnii) 5 feet high ; all 

 grow healthily. 



Gadgirtli, the residence of General Burnett, is on the 

 banks of the Ayr, and 4^ miles from the sea. The soil is 

 light and good, and the place is sheltered by wood and liills 

 in all directions. Here the seed of the hardiest of all the 

 gum trees {Eucalyptus coccifera) was sown in the opcni air in 

 the spring of 1881. It germinaUid well, and now one of the 

 plants is 12^ feet high and 3f inches in girth. Among the 



