MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 237 



ening into myrtle green, with the light new shoots of the " wattle" (Acacia), 

 give a rich beauty of colouring, 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 (Anthistiria australis^), which is 

 considered so nourishing, is hard and hairy, or rather wiry. The flowering 

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

 impressa is in preat quantities every where ; but Heaths have not as yet been 

 successfully cultivated here, and there are none native. The soil is very dry. 

 But cultivation 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 mini- 

 mum 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 

 rescources of the country must be made available. With science and 

 judgement every thing and any tiling may be done here : wherever English 

 trees are planted there they flourish, but they ere few andfar between. The 

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

 quantity of flowers and fruit, such as they are, 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 Lillies of the Valley which you gave me ; four leaves are green, 

 the only morsel in the Southern hemisphere. 



NEW AND RARE PLANTS, 

 Recently noticed at various Nurseries and Floral Exhibitions. 



(Continued from page 215.) 



Acacia cnneata — This plant, from the Swan River, has been raised at 

 Vienna by Baron Hugel. It appears to have glaucous wedge-shaped trun- 

 cated phyllodia, and solitary yellow capitula, whose peduncle is nearly half 

 the length of the leaf. It does not entirely agree with the definition given by 

 Mr. Bentham, both the angles of the phyllodia being tipped with a spine, the 

 midrib forking above the middle, each of its arms being directed towards an 

 angle, and the peduncles being much longer than the stipules, as well as much 

 shorter than the phyllodia. 



Conostylis juncea. — A rigid herbaceous plant, with leaves from six inches 

 to a loot long, at the base of which grow heads of campanulate erect flowers. 

 The tube of the perianth is yellowish green, covered with harsh hairs ; the limb 

 is divided into six, equal, acuminate segments, deep yellow at the base, 

 whitish at the point, the stamens are six, and inserted equally into the throat 

 ol the perianth. It is a pretty greenhouse herbaceous plant, found on the 

 south coast of New Holland by Baron Hugel, and raised at Vienna, where it 

 has flowered. 



Centaurea pulcra. — This most beautiful annual has been raised in the gar- 

 den of the Horticultural Society from seeds collected in the north of India by 

 Dr. Falconer. The leaves are narrow and hoary. The scales of the invo- 

 lucre are green, bordered with a silvery pectinated margin ; the flowers are 

 the deepest blue in the circumference and violet in the centre. No plant can 

 be more worthy of cultivation as a hardy annual. 



Dichaea ochracea. — A small Demerara plant, with narrow leaves, and 

 pale yellow-ochre-coloured flowers. Me-srs. Loddiges obtained it from 

 Demerara. 



Kliidendrum Oandollei.—The flowers are of a dull brown, with a dull 

 yellow lip, striped with the same colour. It is a Mexican plant. 



