The Wilderness 



have stopped short just there in order to save the lovely thing. 

 Beyond all this is natural bush, with tall spotted pink orchids 

 pushing through in the spring-time, under the golden pultenea and 

 dillwynia, and in summer a white cloud of snowbush. 



There is a peculiar fascination in the mixing of wild and tame in 

 that wilderness. The white shasta daisies growing higher than my 

 head in their effort to see the sun through the too protective red- 

 shooted gums ; the orange-flowered mistletoe drooping from the tall 

 ironbark to touch the appletree 

 below, seem to me symbolical of 

 that mixing which should come so 

 naturally between things -and people 

 of this land and of the old. 



Of all the trees in the wilderness 

 there is none which so completely 

 satisfies me as the white cedar (Mel fa 

 composita) . It grows on the upper 

 edge, close to my verandah, and I 

 know it through every varying phase. 

 I never can decide in which season I 

 love it most. It is one of our few 

 deciduous trees, and after its pale 

 golden leaves have dropped it is bare 

 for a short space. Then a soft mauve 

 mist breaks over it, and it is covered 



with a myriad lilac-coloured, lilac- 



The orange-flowered 

 scented blossoms, which pour their Mistletoe ' 



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$8 



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