'346 



A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



robnsta (the Kauri Pine of East Australia), Araucaria Cunningham* and Ccdrc/a 

 Australis (our Red Cedar), may still continue to form the mass of timber in some 

 tracts of country, most valuable commercially, and in each case sought where readily 

 accessible ; but the large fruited Bunya Araucaria (A. Bithci/li), with its edible nuts, is 

 still more confined than the Kauri, and much more so than the ordinary East Australian 



A LILY-POOL, MOUNT MACEDON, VICTORIA. 



Araucaria ; indeed the latter has been traced even to the highlands of New Guinea, a 

 significant fact, as it may indicate a geologic antiquity of the Papuan uplands contem- 

 poraneous with that of many regions similarly situated in Eastern Australia. 



Much might be recorded about the more inland Flora, in which two Eucalypts 

 (. miniata and E. phcenicea) with glittering scaly bark, and with blossoms of an orange 

 or fiery-red, impress a highly ornamental character on the landscape, particularly when 

 these Eucalypts are accompanied by the bat-shaped leaves of Erytlirina I'cspcrtilio, or by 

 the two Kapok-yielding Cocklospcrmums with large yellow flowers. Though here, again, 

 the Eucalypts prevail in the tree-vegetation, they do not attain gigantic size, so that the 

 Cajeput-tree (Melalcuca Leucadcndroit), is one of the best and largest among littoral 

 timber-trees, and is, moreover, remarkable as one of the few trees of tall size fit to 

 live in saline soil. The Abnis climber, with seeds half red and half black, so widely 

 dispersed through the warm zones of the Old and New World, reaches quite to the 

 north-western tracts of Australia, where Captain Dampier noticed it long since. 



Brachychiton trees, some with a complete defoliation for a portion of the year, 

 reach the north-west of the Continent. Bossiceas and Pachyncmas are here flat-branched 

 leafless shrubs; the Henne Dye-bush (Laissonia alba}, the Sunn-fibre and Jute-plant (all 



