APPEARANCE OF THE FORESTS. 217 



most remarkable feature in the landscape of the 

 gi-eater part of New South Wales. Everywhere we 

 have an open woodland, the gi'ound being partially 

 covered with a A'ery thin pasture, with little appear- 

 ance of verdui-e. The trees nearly all belong to one 

 family, and mostly have their leaves placed in a ver- 

 tical, instead of, as in Europe, in a nearly horizontal 

 position : the foliage is scanty, and of a peculiar pale 

 green tint, without any gloss. Hence the woods ap- 

 pear light and shadowless : this, although a loss of 

 comfort to the traveller under the scorching rays of 

 summer, is of importance to the farmer, as it allows 

 gi-ass to gi'ow where it otherwise would not. The 

 leaves are not shed periodically : this character ap- 

 peal's common to the entire southern hemisphere, 

 namely. South America, Australia, and the Cape 

 of Good Hope. The inhabitants of this hemisphere 

 and of the intertropical regions thus lose, perhaps, 

 one of the most glorious, though, to our eyes, com- 

 mon spectacles in the world — the first bursting 

 into full foliage of the leafless tree. They may, 

 however, say that we pay dearly for this by having 

 the land covered with mere naked skeletons for so 

 many months. This is too true ; but our senses 

 thus acquire a keen relish for the exquisite green 

 of the spring, which the eyes of those living within 

 the ti-opics, sated during the long year with the 

 gorgeous productions of those glowing climates, can 

 never experience. The greater number of the 

 trees, with the exception of some of the Blue-gums, 

 do not attain a large size, but they grow tall and 

 tolerably straight, and stand well apart. The bark 

 of some of the Eucalypti falls annually, or hangs 

 dead in long shreds, which swing about with the 

 wind, and give to the woods a desolate and untidy 

 appearance. I cannot imagine a more complete 



n.— T 



