132 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



yellow tints ; species of pepper, running up the 

 trees like ivy ; and beautiful tecomas, (or trum- 

 pet flower,) with brilliant white flowers, tinged 

 with rose Avere a few of the rich variety ob- 

 served by Mr. Backhouse in these forests. A 

 cabbage palm (Corypha Australis) abounds. In 

 South Australia, the grass -tree (Kingia Australis) 

 rises solitary on the sandy plains, with bare 

 blackened trunks, as if scathed by lightning, 

 occasioned by the fires of the natives, and with 

 long tufts of grassy leaves at their extremities. 

 Xanthorrhea hastilis (also called the grass-tree) 

 is a very singular tree in its appearance, but 

 furnishes very valuable fodder for all kinds of 

 cattle, and the tender inner leaves are not to be 

 despised by the hungry as human food ; they 

 are far from disagreeable, having a milky taste, 

 with a slight balsamic flavour. But we must 

 not omit to mention the numerous ferns, which 

 form a most marked feature in the Australian 

 flora, and which are of all sizes, from the small 

 and delicate frond to the magnificently beau- 

 tiful tree ferns, with their feathery fronds thir- 

 teen feet long. Some of them climb the trees 

 like ivy, some crowd the trunks of the largest 

 forest trees, some cover the ground, and some 

 are splendid tree ferns, with fronds from six to 

 thirteen feet long, and trunks varying from three 

 to thirty feet in height. Acrosticlmm grande, 

 one of the ferns that grow on the trees, is as 

 large as a full-grown Scotch cabbage, and is 

 remarkably beautiful. The elk's horn fern 

 (Acrostichum akicorne) grows in thick, dense 



