110 AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIANS. 



thick or plump, and is an inch or an inch and a half 

 wide and about as long, while the old leaf is long, 

 narrow and thin, very much the shape of the peach 

 leaf, only longer and thinner. The two resemble each 

 other about as much as the fat, chubby hand of a 

 plump baby, and the fourth finger on the hand of a 

 tall, delicate lady. 



The other peculiarity of the eucalyptus leaf is that, 

 instead of hanging horizontally on the tree, it turns 

 its edge to the sun. Someone had made up a jingling 

 rhyme respecting the strange contradictions to be seen 

 in nature in terra antipodes, and this line occurs, 

 which was quite a puzzle to us at the time : 



" Where leaves have neither upper side nor under." 



We were at a loss to know what that could possibly 

 mean, until we had become familiar with the eucalyptus. 



The eucalyptus is not so good a shade-tree as the 

 English elm or oak, which grow very luxuriantly in 

 Australian soil, yet it is planted in considerable 

 numbers about residences and towns, because of its 

 medicinal properties, being, as it is thought, a valuable 

 preventive against all kinds of fever. 



The oil extracted from the leaves is very extensively 

 used throughout Australia, and is unquestionably a 

 most valuable remedy. We have used it for a year or 

 more, and consider it, whether for outward or inward 



