226 "NATURAL HISTOBT SKETCHES. 



when in full bloom it has a very pretty appearance, waving 

 in thelight summer breeze. They generally grow in patches, 

 on moist ground, and in the old country would be the 

 very cover to hold a spring fox or an outlying pheasant. 



The tea-tree is the common scrub here, and grows 

 universally throughout the country, in dense patches in 

 all moist situations, and by the side of creeks and water- 

 holes ; and it is to the cover of this shrub that the 

 Australian shooter owes many a pair of ducks. It is a 

 kind of high bush, grows on a long pole up to twelve to 

 fifteen feet; the branches are bushy, shoot up always per- 

 pendicularly, and the leaves are something like the spines 

 on a fir. It has a very pretty yellow blossom. The tea- 

 tree grows of all heights ; is of a dark-green colour : 

 the scrub is very thick, and almost impenetrable, except 

 down a cattle track. The wood is hard ; the poles are 

 straight, and valuable for many bush purposes. 



A species of mistletoe grows as a parasite on some of 

 the old gums. It strongly reminds one of the mistletoe 

 at home. 



Immense pieces of swamp, or fungus, are found in the 

 forest, and, when duy, used to make an excellent tinder 

 for lighting our pipes. I have seen the Blacks eating a 

 kind of fungus ; and there are several edible roots here 

 which we know not, but which they grub up and eat. 



In the summer, a kind of white secretion gathers on 

 the leaves of some of the gum trees, and falls to the 

 ground. It is here called manna. It is sweet, and not 

 unlike coarse pounded sugar. I never saw it in such 



