178 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



(Eucalyptus), which has been before described, and others 

 of the Myrtle family ; the Exocarpus too, leafless Mimosas,* 

 and some few others with names which are strange to Eng- 

 lish ears, compose the forests, amongst which is a tree 

 called the Casuarina, which is like an Equisetum (Horse- 

 tail) grown into a tree, with weeping branches. The trees 

 above named strike us as being larger in the interior than 

 those we first saw in the more southern parts, and they are 

 all { ' of such various forms, and of such remarkable beauty, 

 that the landscape there is certainly very different from 

 ours." We find the handsome parasite before named (Lo- 

 ranthus], as well as Misseltoe (Viscum), growing on the 

 trees ; and, climbing over their stems, we again see the 

 Billardiem, with its berries of lapis-lazuli blue. 



" In the interior of Australia there is a kind of Buck- 

 wheat (Polygonum junceum) , which spreads over wide tracts 

 of country ; the Kangaroo-grass too (Anthistiria Australis) 

 is said to appear in great masses ;" this, and a kind of Fig- 

 Marigold (Mesembryanthemum aquilaterale), are supposed 



* As the word " leafless" may convey the idea of a tree with hare branches, 

 it may be as well to explain that these Mimosas are an example of that me- 

 tamorphose before spoken of, by which the leafstalk assumes a leaf-like ap- 

 pearance, whilst the true leaf is undeveloped. The same thing may be observed 

 in the little greenhouse Mimosa. 



