EUCALYPTUS TREES. 133 
are scattered not further west than to the craters of 
extinct volcanoes near Mount Gambier, and although 
colossal Todea Ferns, with stems six to ten feet high, 
and occasionally as thick, emerge from the streamlets 
which meander through the deep ravines near Mount 
Lofty, on St. Vincent’s Gulf, we miss there the stately 
Palm-like grace of the Cyathez, Dicksoniz, and Al- 
sophile, which leave on the lover of nature who ever 
beheld them the remembrance of their inexpressible 
beauty. These Fern- trees, often twenty to thirty, 
occasionally fifty to seventy feet high, and at least as 
many years old, if not older, admit readily of removal 
from their still mild and humid haunts to places where, 
for decorative vegetation, we are able to produce the 
moisture and the shade necessary for their existence. 
Of all Fern-trees of the globe that species which pre- 
dominates through the dark glens of Victoria, Tasma- 
nia, and parts of New South Wales, the Dicksonia 
Antarctica (although not occurring in the antarctic 
regions), is the most hardy and least susceptible to 
dry heat. This species, therefore, should be chosen 
for garden ornaments, or for being plunged into any 
park glens; and if it is considered that trees half a 
century old may with impunity be deprived of their 
foliage and sent away to distant countries as ordinary 
merchandise, it is also surprising that a plant so abund- 
ant has not yet become an article of more extended 
commerce. 
A multitude of smaller ferns, many of delicate 
forms, are harbored under the shade of j ungle vege- 
tation, amounting in their aggregate to about one 
hundred and sixty species, to which number future 
researches in north-east Australia will undoubtedly 
