266 NFW SOUTH WALES. 



galleys of old romances, are sceuic effects to be treasured in tlie travel- 

 ler's memory. The brilliant colour and tropical cliarm of the harbour of 

 Colombo ; the fairyland beauty of the Japanese Inland Sea when the 

 draped and pleated sails float down against the sunset or in the glow of 

 early morning; the blue seascape seen from the terraces of Monte Carlo, 

 like' the picture-scene in an opera ; and the port of Marseilles, with its 

 curious suggestion of certain aspects of Sydney Harbour — all these make 

 striking and memorable pictures. The harbour at Rio Janeiro is said 

 by those who have seen it to rival the waterway of Sydney, but cer- 

 tainly none of the others named, as the writer has seen them, can 

 pretend to excel it in purely natural beauty. It is, then, hardly much 

 matter for vronderif our people value their possession of this beautiful 

 natural advantage ; or that we appear to strangers, as one of them has 

 told the world, almost as proud of our harbour as though we had 

 excavated its basin ourselves. 



No description of Sydney would be complete without some reference 

 to the Botanic Gardens. Although the city grew up under some- 

 what haphazard conditions, the citizens have always been indebted to 

 the foresight of Governor Phillip in setting apart certain areas for 

 public reserves. Among these are Hyde Park and the Sydney Domain, 

 to which the Botanical Gardens adjoin . Had this precautionary measure 

 not been taken it is more than likely that, in the expansion of the 

 city, what are now valuable breathing spaces would have been over- 

 grown with streets and houses, and the population would have to go 

 much further afield for recreation than is the case now. The site of 

 the Gardens was originally occupied by farms, whence the name Farm 

 Cove. But this admirable position has for many years been devoted 

 to its present purpose, and the beauty of its situation, with its far- 

 extending water frontage, has been used to make of the Gardens as 

 beautiful and attractive a pleasure ground as may be found anywhere. 

 The immediate purpose of the Gardens is, of course, to serve as a place 

 for the collection of botanical specimens from all parts of the world ; 

 but while this object is in all respects efficiently served, the Gardens 

 fulfil the further office of a public park under the most perfect condi- 

 tions. Here tropical foliage, flowers and shrubs of all kinds, and 

 trees brought with sedulous care from their native regions in all 

 quarters of the globe, unite to give interest to the scene. Here are 

 cloistral walks and shady pleasaunces, and broad stretches of lawny 

 grass, and cool air-wafts from the bay to temper the summer heats 

 from which the citizen seeks refuge, setting the flowers astir and gently 

 touching to a pleasant murmur the leaves of grateful trees. There is 

 the green arbutus by whose like Horace loved to lie lazily extended in 

 the shade, while he crystallised the life and philosophy of his time 

 into the odes and epodes and satires he has left us. Here is a Spanish 

 cork-tree like those under which Cervantes or his Don Quixote may 

 have squeezed a wine-skin by a wayside of La Mancha. Here are 

 waving plumes of palms, like those"^ that first made the islands of 

 the South Seas distinguishable above the sea-line to the eyes of early 

 Austral adventurers. Here are rustic bridges spanning pretty water- 

 courses, with the old sun-dial, and a sound of the voices of doves in 

 the air. The sunlight lies broadly across the lawny stretches of fresh 

 grass, and some way off an occasional marble figure gleams white in 



