Callistemons 



HE heavy rains have brought them out in hundreds, and 

 the swamp is afire with them. Beneath the white, 

 sprawling branches of the scribbly gums, they stretch away 

 across the sodden bush in a mass of crimson and scarlet. The 

 passers-by are few ; but those who have wandered from the 

 high road, and braved the mud and slush of the track, forget 

 the wet, and, regardless of dripping skirts and soaking feet, 

 stand spellbound before the feast of beauty. Well do they 

 deserve their pretty name, which, formed of two soft Greek 

 words, means " beautiful stamens." The glowing spikes of 

 colour are inches more than their usual length ; the vivid 

 scarlet of the newer flowers tones gently into the softer 

 crimson of the older ones, and the soft, greyish pink of the 

 leaf tips completes the colour scheme ; while the whole picture 

 is thrown into relief by the grey sand beneath and the grey 

 sky above. 



A minute before, we had been annoyed at finding that our 

 short-cut to the ocean had led us into an impassable swamp, 

 but a bend in the path had brought us face to face with the 

 callistemons, and how could disappointment or annoyance 

 live before such beauty? What did it matter that we' had 

 already come half a mile from the road half a mile which 



