AUSTRALIA 



ISO 



AUSTRALIA 



tralian Bight, has an average of not more than 

 riches of rainfall in the year. 



Plant Life. The isolated position of Aus- 

 tralia has resulted in very decided peculiarities 

 in its plant life. Some forms of East Indian 

 vegetation have taken root there, but the most 

 characteristic plants are unlike those of the 

 other continents and come somewhat lower in 

 the scale of development. In past geologic ages 

 such plant forms as now exist in Australia 

 covered the earth, but to-day they have prac- 

 tically disappeared elsewhere. Fully 7,000 out 

 of the 12,000 species of plants found in the 

 continent are not to be found in any other. 

 The sharp difference in climate and in condi- 

 tions of moisture, too, have had their influence, 

 and the vegetation shows well-marked zones. 

 Many of the peculiar species show an unmis- 

 takable relation to the general dryness, having 

 either scanty foliage, narrow leaves that pre- 

 sent little surface for evaporation or thick, 

 leathery leaves well fitted to retain moisture. 



Since not all Australia is arid, however, not 

 all of its plants are of this semi-desert type. 

 In the north and east a luxuriant tropical 

 vegetation prevails, and it is here, where Aus- 

 tralia approaches most closely the East Indies, 

 that certain forms common in the Malay 

 Archipelago appear. Ferns, palms, bamboos, 

 the extraordinary bottle tree, acacias and the 

 eucalyptus flourish, the latter attaining its 

 greatest height on the plains of Victoria. This 

 huge tree, which rivals the "big trees" of 

 California in size, is one of the most charac- 

 teristic Australian types. Of its 150 species, 

 all but three or four are native to this smallest 

 of the continents. Other gum trees also 

 abound, and the acacia, or wattle, is one of the 

 most valuable plants economically, as it yields 

 an excellent bark for tanning. Throughout 

 the forests gorgeous orchids, brilliantly flowered 

 mistletoes and other parasitic plants combine 

 with the crimson or golden flowers of certain 

 species of the acacias to present a most striking 

 appearance. 



In the interior section and along the southern 

 and parts of the western coast, however, vege- 

 tation is not so luxuriant. Large stretches in 

 the arid region are covered with the charac- 

 teristic spinifex, or porcupine grass, a hard, 

 coarse and exceedingly spiny plant, which ren- 

 ders traveling difficult, wounds the feet of 

 horses and cannot be eaten by any animal. 

 The scrub, or "bush," as it is more commonly 

 called, is made up of various stunted growths 

 of the eucalyptus and myrtle families, crowded 



so thickly in certain localities as to be actually 

 impenetrable. The gums and volatile oils 

 which these trees contain give to the bush a 

 fragrance as delightful as that of a North 

 American forest where balsam firs abound. 

 It is the bush for which Australia stands in 

 the minds of many people, for almost every 

 man brings from his boyhood memories of 

 The Bushrangers, a fascinating story which 

 made that part of the continent very real to 

 him. 



Of native fruit trees Australia has practically 

 none, nor are its food-yielding plants of other 

 kinds much more important. Many European 

 plants have been introduced, however, and the 

 vine, the olive, the mulberry and the various 

 cereals thrive well, while large tracts, especially 

 in Queensland, are devoted to sugar cane and 

 pineapples. 



Animal Life. As peculiar as the plant life, 

 and even more interesting, are the animals of 

 Australia. Geologists hold that this continent 

 is one of the very oldest parts of the world, 

 and the animal life' bears them out in their 

 theory that it must have been separated from 

 the other lands of the eastern hemisphere 

 untold ages ago. Of the many mammals which 

 all the other continents possess the cats, 

 horses, cattle, lions, bears, elephants Australia 

 has none. A wild dog known as the dingo, 

 several kinds of bats and a few rodents are the 

 only representatives of the higher animals, all 

 the other mammals belonging to a more primi- 

 tive class known as marsupials. These animals 

 are distinguished by the fact that the young 

 are very immature when born, and are carried 

 by the mother in a pouch until they are able 

 to shift for themselves. Outside Australia, such 

 pouch animals are found nowhere else except 

 in the opossums of North America. The kan- 

 garoo, the larger forms of which comprise the 

 biggest animals of Australia, is the best known 

 of these marsupials, but the wombats, the 

 opossums and the bandicoots are equally inter- 

 esting and curious. Like the mammals of the 

 other continents, some of these pouch animals 

 are flesh-eaters, some root-eaters, some fruit- 

 eaters, and many of them resemble more or less 

 closely the common* animals of other parts of 

 the world. 



The marsupials, however, are not the lowest 

 order of mammals that Australia possesses, the 

 echidna and the duck-billed platypus ranking 

 farther down in the scale of life. These are, 

 so far as is known, the only mammals in the 

 world that lay eggs. 



