FAUNA AND FLORA. 



tree, not obscuring the light, 

 becomes a network of elegant 

 tracery. Viewed in the daytime 

 in juxtaposition to oak or elm, 

 and the confession must be made 

 that the average gum of the 

 plains is scraggy ; but in the 

 moonlight the oak or elm will be a black 

 blotch, when the eucalypt is transformed 

 into a wonder of light and shade and of 

 graceful outlines. An acquaintance with 

 the bush soon dispels the notion of mo- 

 notony. The eucalypts are found to dif- 

 fer one from another ; the handsome 

 Banksias, the curious Casuarinas, or shea- 

 oaks, the graceful acacias, all claim attention and 

 individualise the scene, while palms, grass-trees 

 and tree-ferns add charm and character to many 

 a landscape. 



In vegetation as in other matters Australia 

 delights in the vast, sometimes in the outre, 

 often in the contrast of extremes. Dwarf scrub 

 will cover whole regions. One tract of the 

 mallee scrub, shared between Victoria and South 

 Australia, covers an area of nearly 9000 square 

 miles. The mallee is just high enough to render 

 it impossible for a man on horseback to look 

 over it. And on the mountain ranges in the 

 same colony are to be 

 found long stretches and 

 avenues of the ' giant gums,' 

 whose pure white silvery 

 columns seem as though in- 

 tended to support the sky. 

 Between these two extremes 

 is to be found a pleasantly- 

 wooded country presenting 

 a park - like appearance. 

 Farther afield are the in- 

 terior plains, covered often 

 with the terrible spinifex, 

 or porcupine grass, a hard, 

 coarse and spiny grass, 



Australian Trees. 



O 2 



