The Wilderness 



stage of growth, and as the older trees die off there are always new ones 

 coming to perfection. 



Pittosporums, too, he planted, which fill the mild spring evenings 

 with their heavy sweetness ; and many Christmas-bushes. These 

 enjoy the wealth of food which comes from all the leaf-mould and 

 decay, and at Christmas time each year their rosy branches glow like 

 beacons through the green glade. 



Close by the creek grows 

 one of the loveliest of the wild 

 trees, the native cherry (Exocar- 

 pus cupressiformis). There is 

 quite an old-world charm in its 

 formal cypress shape, which 

 seems to reprove the irregular 

 gums and she-oaks ; and the 

 gold-green of its tender tips 

 stands out in lovely contrast 

 against the blue-green and silver- 

 grey of the other trees. 

 When the setting sun catches it 

 through the taller tree trunks it 

 glows like a fairy Christmas tree, 

 and one can picture the little 

 folk dancing round it in a ring. 

 It grows at the very edge of the 

 once cultivated plot, and I think 



the planner of that garden must 



The formal cypress shape 

 of the Native Cherry 



