PEBENNIAL GBEENNESS OP THE TOEESTS. 227 



quantities as would pay for gathering, unless it was very 

 clear. 



The general scrub or underwood of these forests is 

 " myall ;" some species of coarse heather and low shrubs. 

 I do not know of any thorn in this country except the 

 box. 



I have above slightly noticed the common trees and 

 bushes peculiar to this district. Of course, there are 

 others which I do not know, but these are the most 

 striking ones. The fern tree is met with in the Dan- 

 denong ranges ; but many handsome and curious species, 

 such as the cedar, the pine, the cabbage-palm, and the 

 grass-tree, peculiar to other parts of Australia, are 

 strangers here. 



Nothing, perhaps, in this country, strikes the English 

 emigrant so much as the perennial greenness of the 

 forests, and the slight difference there is in Australia 

 between the summer and winter landscape. It is true 

 that, in the winter, the leaves want the green freshness 

 of spring, but they still cling to the branches ; and at 

 this season the trees shed their bark, which hangs down 

 in long strips, waving to and fro as the wintry wind 

 whistles through the forests with a low mournful wail. 

 The seasons, moreover, so imperceptibly glide into each 

 other, that the change is scarcely noticed. Magnificent 

 as are the Australian forests, he cannot help at times 

 comparing the monotony of the woodland landscape here, 

 with the varied changes of scene which the different 

 seasons present in his northern home ; and at no season 

 Q 2 



