138 AROUND THE WORLD VIA INDIA. 



investment. The tree that lifted its head high above 

 everything around it and reached the greatest dimen- 

 sions was the Eucalyptus amagdalina, the giant gum 

 tree. In some localities this tree attains a height of 

 over 400 feet and a circumference of more than 60 

 feet. About the only other tree that is congenial to 

 these anarchistic mountaineers is the fern tree. The 

 pale green foliage and black, rough stem of the latter 

 is in strong and pleasing contrast with the dark green 

 crowns and white, smooth, bare trunks of the former. 

 We found here three species of fern trees, the Alsophila 

 australis, with a low, thick stem and a terminal scanty 

 tuft of short cut leaves, the Dicksonia antartica and the 

 Dicksonia davalloides, the high fern trees with a slender 

 stem from 20 to 30 feet in height and an immense um- 

 brella at its top made of fronds of enormous length. 

 The Dicksonia in some localities is known to reach a 

 height of 60 feet. The blue gum tree (Eucalyptus 

 globulus), grows in abundance in Victoria. It attains 

 exceptionally a height of 300 feet. It grows with un- 

 paralleled rapidity and yields a tough wood admirably 

 adapted for shipbuilding and other purposes for which 

 a durable and strong material is required. Ship- 

 builders can get keels of this timber 120 feet long. It 

 is from this tree that eucalyptol and the various euca- 

 lyptus preparations are most profitably obtained. F. 

 H. Faulding & Co., Adelaide, are the principal manu- 

 facturers of the eucalyptus preparations used as anti- 

 septics in internal and external medications. We found 

 in this forest a great number of one of the most beau- 

 tiful of the ornamental trees of Australia— the golden 

 wattle (Acacia pycnantha) . opening its blossoms of 

 golden yellow in the form of long, drooping tassels. 

 When in full bloom the evergreen leaves are almost ob- 

 scured by this golden drapery. The tree attains a maxi- 

 mum height of about 30 feet; its long, slender trunk 

 is branchless almost to it? very top, and when, with the 

 earliest indications of approaching spring, it decorates 



