574 



siliceous sandstone. The remainder of the island is basaltic, and rises into hills, co- 

 vered with grass and forest. The highest hill is Mount Pitt, which is on the north 

 side of the island, and about 1,200 feet above the level of the sea. The upper portions 

 of the valleys, and the higher parts of the hills, are covered with wood. The Norfolk 

 Island pine, Altingia excelsa, towers a hundred feet above the rest of the forest ; it 

 also grows in clumps, and singly, on the grassy parts of the island, to the very verge, 

 where its roots are washed by the sea, in high tides. In figure, this tree resembles the 

 Norway spruce, but the tiers of its branches are more distant. Its appearance is re- 

 markably different, in its native soil, from what it is in the fine collection of trees at 

 Kew ; where it nevertheless exhibits many of its striking and beautiful features. — 

 Where the wood of Norfolk Island merges into open grassy valley, a remarkable tree- 

 fern, Alsophila excelsa, exhibits its rich crests among the surrounding verdure. The 

 fronds are from seven to twelve feet long ; they resemble those of Aspidium Filix- 

 mas, and are produced in such a quantity, as to make this noble fern excel the princely 

 palm-tree in beauty. It usually has its root near the course of some rain-stream, but 

 as its trunk rises to fifty feet in height, and its top does not afi"ect the shade, like many 

 of its congeners, it forms a striking object in the landscape. 



" Much of the land was formerly cultivated, but this is now overrun with the ap- 

 ple-fruited guava, and the lemon, which were introduced many years ago, when the 

 island was settled, with a view to its becoming a granary to New South Wales. Grape 

 vines, figs, and some other fruits, have also become naturalized. In the garden at 

 Orange Vale, cofi"ee, bananas, guavas, grapes, figs, olives, pomegranates, strawberries, 

 loquats and melons, are cultivated successfully. Apples are also grown here, but they 

 are poor and will not keep." — p. 251. 



" One of the remarkable vegetable productions of this island is Freycinetia Baueri- 

 ana, or the N. I. grass-tree. It belongs to the tribe of Pandaneee, or screw pines. Its 

 stem is marked by rings, where the old leaves have fallen off, and is an inch and a half 

 in diameter ; it lies on the ground, or climbs like ivy, or winds round the trunks of trees. 

 The branches are crowned with crests of broad, sedge-like leaves. From the centre of 

 these, arise clusters of three or four oblong, red, pulpy fruit, four inches in length, and 

 as much in circumference. When the plant is in flower, the centre leaves are scarlet, 

 giving a splendid appearance to the plant, which sometimes is seen twining round the 

 trunk of the princely tree-fern. The New Zealand flax, Phorminm tenax, a large, 

 handsome plant, with sedgy leaves, covers the steep declivities of many parts of this 

 island, particularly at the tops of the cliffs of the coast. It is suffered to grow to waste, 

 except a little that is converted into small nets and cordage, by the prisoners, for their 

 own use. Two New Zealanders were once introduced, to teach the prisoners to pre- 

 pare it ; but their process was so tedious, that the scheme was abandoned." — p. 256. 



On the 16th our traveller rode with Major Anderson to Anson's 

 Bay, on the northern side of the island. 



" The road was chiefly through thick forest, overrun with luxuriant climbers. 

 Among thera was a Wistaria, with pea-flowers, of purple and gi'cen, and leaves some- 

 thing like those of the Ash. It hangs in festocns of twenty or thirty feet, from the 

 limbs of the trees that support it. One of the most beautiful climbers of the island is 

 Ipomoea pendula, which has handsome fingered foliage, and flowers like those of the 

 major convolvulus, but of a rosy pink, with a darker tube. The remains of two pines, 



