298 FORESTS OF AUSTRALIA. 



of that place, that though some may be more 

 novel than others, it is impossible to say which 

 is the most interesting. If in one place there is 

 more continual action, there is in the other more 

 activity after the season of repose is over ; and 

 where there are the flowers of summer and the 

 fruits of autumn in perpetual succession, we look 

 in vain for the buds of spring which are at once 

 the most beautiful and the most inspiring of 

 nature's productions. 



Even the leafless groves have their charms ; 

 and he who has never studied it in the winter, has 

 no proper knowledge of the beauty or even the 

 form of a tree. There is fully as much character 

 in those permanent parts as there is in the leaves 

 or the flowers. There is a character of species in 

 the bark, and there is a character of age. In the 

 young shoot it is smooth ; but as the tree gets 

 old it is rifted and thick. Except it be some of 

 the sycamores, and they are not natives, there are 

 not trees that with us annually cast their bark. In 

 some countries it is different. In New Holland, 

 for instance, all the species of Eucalyptus, and they 

 compose the principal forests, cast their external 

 bark down to the white liber every year ; so that, 

 though the leaves are evergreen, there is a "fall 

 of the bark " answering to our " fall of the leaf." 



When we compare those two operations, and 

 then consider the difference of the timber, we gain 

 one point of knowledge in the economy of vege- 

 tation. The dismantling of the leaves is a pro- 

 tection to the plant as a whole. It presents a 

 smaller surface to the wind, and the whole of it is 

 wrapt up in a close mantle from the cold. The 

 juiceswhich, duringthe summer action, were liquid, 

 become firm in their consistency and diminished 



