120 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. 



That part of Australia in which the English colonies lie 

 is mostly low and even ground, compared with the northern 

 part, which is hilly but not mountainous ; and in the south- 

 ern part the grass is richer and the trees higher than in the 

 north. Considering the object of our visit to Australia, we 

 could not begin our observations in a more appropriate part 

 than Botany Bay (alas, for the unhappy associations !), which, 

 except in the broad outline, probably wears a very different 

 face now, to that which it did when Captain Cook described 

 it. " On the north side of the Bay the country resembles 

 the moory grounds of England, the land being covered with 

 plants (?) about sixteen inches high. The hills rise gradually 

 behind each other to a great distance, with marshy ground 

 between/' On the muddy shores grow numbers of the sin- 

 gular Mangrove-trees, both in the water and out of the 

 water ; they are very large trees, but usually not more than 

 forty or fifty feet high, and bare of branches to a great 

 height, the great trunks standing together like a range of 

 columns. But the great peculiarity of these Mangrove or 

 Mangle-trees (RMzophorea) is, that the seeds begin to grow 

 before they fall from the scarlet berry which protects them ; 

 from which the root, which looks very much like a strong 

 coral-coloured fibre, hangs suspended in a curious manner, 

 till at last it drops into the mud below. 



