thev to the north, on the Wilson river, near Port MacquarrLe, the 

 brushes are very magnificent. 



" The trees, some of which are of gigantic size, are overrun with climbing, ever- 

 green shrubs, twisted about them in fanciful coils, or wreathed around them like huge 

 serpents, or hanging from them like ropes ; their leafy tops being enlivened by gay 

 and fragrant blossoms, and often hanging pendent to the ground, which is covered 

 thickly with beautiful shrubs, ferns, and flowering plants, nourished by the moisture 

 of the rich alluvial soil, and kept from the parching influence of the sun by the exu- 

 berant foliage. Mosses, epiphytes of the Orchis tribe, and splendid ferns, as well as 

 various species of fig-tree, support themselves on the trunks and branches of the larger 

 timber, and add greatly to the richness of this kind of forest scenery ; among which, 

 gay parrots, cockatoos, and other birds, unlike those of our native land, sport and chat- 

 ter in harmony with the rest of the surrounding objects, which are strongly calculated 

 to remind an Englishman that he is far from home, even though he may have made this 

 his adopted country," — p. 408. 



The neighbourhood of Port Macquarie is rich in the diversity of its 

 vegetation, and the vt'hole of the following passage is so replete with 

 interest, that we feel confident it will prove acceptable to our readers. 



" The vegetation here is very striking. On our return to Port Macquarie, we no- 

 ticed a shrubby, white-flowered Helichrysum, two species of Cassia, Tasmania insipida, 

 Ficus microphylla, ferrugiiiea, and another species, Hibiscus splendens, with blossoms 

 six to nine inches across, Hibiscus heterophyllus, and a shrub with white flowers, al- 

 lied to Sida, but of a distinct genus, having five red glands at the base of the common 

 filament, also a singular climbing plant belonging to the Aroideae, adhering to the 

 trees, along with Dischidia nummularia, Polypodium quercifoliura and attenuatum, 

 Dendrobium tetragouum, linguiforme, eemulum and calamifolium. In some places 

 the country is undulating and grassy. It is adapted for horned cattle, and suff'ers less 

 from drought than many other parts of N. S. Wales. 



" 9th. I took a walk into the wood, on Tacking Point, on the coast south of Port 

 Macquarie. The road from Lake Cottage lay through the Catlii Marsh, part of which 

 was crossed by a long and imperfect bridge of logs. Blandfordia grandiflora deco- 

 rated some of the open forest, in which several of the gum-trees were supporting a va- 

 riety of parasitical figs. A grass-tree swamp intervened between the bridge and the 

 shore. On the borders of the swamp, where the ground was sandy, with a small mix- 

 ture of vegetable matter, several species of Boronia, Epacris, and Euphrasia, were in 

 flower, along with Sowerbsea juncea, a handsome Comesperma, a species of Sprenge- 

 lia, &c. On the drier sand hills there were Banksia serrata and spinulosa, Platylo- 

 bium foiTOosum, Roeperia pinifolia, a species of Pultenaea which formed dense patches, 

 and Kennedia ovata and rubicunda, ^c. Close upon the coast, Pandanus peduncu- 

 latus was of inferior growth to that at Moreton Bay. In a marsh at Tacking Point, 

 chiefly occupied by Melaleuca paludosa, and bordered by a large, silver-flowered, wil- 

 low-leaved Helichrysum, Todaea africana? had become arborescent, and formed a 

 beautiful tree-fern, with fronds six feet long, on a trunk three feet high. It was grow- 

 ing with an Alsophila, the trunk of which was much slenderer than that of the A. aus- 

 tralis of V. D. Land, and with a large Crinum and Caladium glycirrhizon. In the 

 forest, there were many noble trees, similar to those in the neighbouring woods, but 



