134 A BOTANICAL TOUR AMONG THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS. 
vious to our return to Sydney. If I had not known something. of the richness 
The harbour is well sheltered, and the wea large, — ering the age 
of the sett tlement; but the bare-looking hills whieh surround it, destitute of 
Government, having the ctor Li they possess,—convict labour, ete., for 
the improvement p the e of the place. They would only have to 
send seven miles to find a allish of large and truly ornamental trees, such 
ew 
posed of 
really good soil. New Caledonia will yet, I think, from its fine genial climate 
tion to visit it soon again), produce a greater variety of plants than most 
islands in the Pacific. Unfortunately I spent but one day, and that a pouring 
wet one, in the mountains a few miles above the “ Model Farm.” In spite of 
the rain, e I succeeded in collecting some interesting plants. A suc- 
cession of very pleasing cascades occurs between two very steep mountains to 
the right of má farm. These steeps are literally covered with vegetation, which 
i in the Sam 
of other plants under foot, and luxuriant heptane description, are here to be 
met with; and overhead, at considerable height, the massive green boughs of 
the taller trees, whose stems and larger branches profusely ornamented with 
parasites and epiphytes, together with numerous climbers, form a canopy 
beneath which the sun seldom or never gleams, and presents a picture of vege- 
table luxuriance such as language cannot See a nor the talents of an artist 
do justice to. Conspicuous during my walk through more open spaces were 
ri wia 
- ium, Acacia, Cyer. Asc lepias, NEART , and 
ge the ** Model Farm" many } } fi n by convicts. 
In one of the granaries I was shown ty M. Botan, a ne 
the whole establishment, some ten or twelve tons of rice, of good quality, which 
