13() AROUND THE WOULD VIA INDIA. 



the country, the wild fig tree and the eucalyptus tree. 

 Two species of the former, the Ficus australis and 

 the Ficus macropkylla, the Morton-Bay Fig-tree, both 

 of them indigenous through a great part of East Aus- 

 tralia, the grandest of Australian avenue trees. They 

 resemble each other very closely in appearance; the 

 latter, however, is a larger tree and has broader leaves. 

 The stems are short, the crowns broad and the roots 

 wide-spreading. There is a dense foliage of evergreen 

 leaves, which are oblong, with a deep green shiny upper 

 and a pale green lower surface. The fruit is in the. 

 form of a miniature fig, with very small seeds, the 

 favorite food of the wild pigeon. These trees are the 

 principal shade trees in this and other Australian 

 cities. The eucalyptus tree is the monarch of the Aus- 

 tralian forests. It is found everj^where, on the coast, 

 the plains, and invariably crowns every hill crest and 

 all mountain peaks. Tt is an intolerant, jealous, selfish, 

 anarchistic tree, its greatest virtue being its uncon- 

 querable patriotic sentiments. Diversity of climate 

 and soil have succeeded in the course of thousands of 

 years to break up the original family into nearly 400 

 species. Baron von Mueller has described 72. It is a 

 strange tree. Tt never removes its green turban of pale 

 green, long, narrow, pointed, aromatic leaves, but in- 

 stead throws off its ragged garment of rough bark once 

 a year in order to exhibit its new, gay, grayish-white 

 ■juvenile dress. I never lost sight of this tree during 

 my 1,000-mile railway journey through the coast dis- 

 tricts of Australia. The air everywhere was perfumed 

 with the ethereal aromatic exhalations of this ubiquitous 

 tree. I had heard much of the immense forests of giant 

 eucalyptus trees of Australia, and was extremely anx- 

 ious to satisfy my curiosity to see one of them. This 

 desire was gratified Sunday, August 7. Accompanied 

 by Professor Bird, his son, and Prof. G. A. Syme, we 

 left Melbourne bv rail at 11 a. m. and arrived at Heals- 



