PHYSIOGRAPHY OF A US TR. I /.. IS/. I. 



'343 



As regards the tree vegetation, it might be mentioned that the number .f 

 of specific difference is greater within the boundaries of New South Wales than in any 

 other of our colonial territories, half a hundred distinct kinds having become known from 

 the oldest Australian colony. As trees impress the main feature on the vegetation of 

 any landscape, we would single out, in passing, a few here, as worthy of special 

 mention. The Ccdrcla Australis, called the red cedar, has its home even far south in 

 the once celebrated " Brushes," many of which, however, now belong only to the past. 

 Cedrcla in Eastern Australia, as in some tropic 

 countries elsewhere, furnishes for us the most easily 

 worked and yet long-lasting timber, though the 

 kinds of useful and also of ornamental woods of 

 New South Wales are extraordinarily 

 numerous. Macadamia tcrnifolia is 

 also a "nut-tree" of real value; the 

 number of planted trees of Ficus 

 macropliylla for avenue purposes is 

 probably much larger now than what 

 remains of this grand tree on its 

 pristine grounds, it being mainly 

 chosen for shade in all regions free 

 from frost. Stenocarpus sinuosus is, in 

 foliage and flowers, of an unsurpass- 

 able beauty of its own, while the 

 large order of Protcaccce (besides the 

 two last mentioned arboreous forms) 

 furnishes the Waratah of universal 

 renown (Tclopea spcciocissima}. The 

 Wooden Pear (Xylomelum pyriforme), 

 declared as such in the earliest writ- 

 ings on Australia in a strain of fabu- 

 lous interpretation, is rather a shrub 



than a tree. Just so it was gravely related, to the astonishment of those at the Anti- 

 podes, that our so-called Native Cherry-tree (Exocarpns}, bore the stone outside the fruit. 

 The Ceratopctalum gummiferum is known as the " Christmas Bush." The Duboisia-Bush 

 (D. myoporoidcs} has quite recently proved of great value for medicinal purposes, particu- 

 larly as a mydriatic. In secluded spots, Leichhardt's slender Fern-tree (Alsophila Lcicliliard- 

 tiana), occurs with other varieties of ferns, or the huge Platyccriitm grandc clasps 

 some venerable trunk, or the widely-spreading but delicately-fronded Lygodiitm, and even 

 the gigantic Angiopteris fern, may be seen in deceptive similarity with Maraltia in the 

 northern part of New South Wales. A high-stemmed Galeola-Orchid may compete there 

 in extensiveness with the far-away Javanic Grammatopliylluin, or with the Vanilla-plant ; 

 and y"et the largest of all Orchids may be con-sociated with the minutest Bnlbophyllmn ; 

 or the equally epiphytal Ophioglosswn pendulum, may droop from some huge branch 

 with its single but very long ribbon-like leaf. 



THE CHRISTMAS BUSH (Ceratopctalum gummiferum). 



