188 WATER GUM TREES. 



beyond the acknowledged limits of the colony, 

 although numerous cattle and sheep stations I 

 extend to a great distance further. On the 

 banks of this fine stream, besides numerous 

 flowering shrubs, the elegant "swamp oaks" 

 towered to the elevation of fifty or sixty feet, 

 their dark filiform foliage giving them the cha- 

 racter of the larch : besides these, (which were 

 by far the most numerous,) there were some enor- • 

 mous trees of i\iQ Eucalyptus genus, called ' ' water 

 gum" by the colonists ; they attain from ninety to 

 one hundred feet in height, with a diameter of from 

 six to eight feet ; the wood is of a reddish colour, 

 and very hard : on account of the latter qviality, it 

 is less frequently used, being difficult to cut. The 

 currijong (Hibiscus) also grew about the limestone 

 rocks in the vicinity, and Avas readily to be dis- 

 tinguished from other trees by the lighter and 

 more vivid green of its foliage. A number of 

 European genera of plants indigenous to the 

 country, or at all events from their situations 

 giving reason to suppose so, grew in the vici- " 

 nity of this river ; among others, the "sow 

 thistle," (the young tops of which are eaten by the 

 natives just before the plant commences to blos- 

 som,) a small red poppy, the crow-foot, a rum ex 

 or dock (i?. lancifolia?) geranium, and " shep- 



