APPENDIX. 



C95 



gum reain, of a highly stringent quality, possessing 

 similar properties to gum-kino, and as such is a va- 

 luable corrective in dysenteric complaints, which are 

 often fatal amongst the colonists. 



Steinot-Bask {E. pulvei-ulcntxa), Fig. 2.— The 

 timber of the white and blue gums, as well as their 

 ally the stringy-bark, is of the most serviceable de- 

 scription to the colonists. Though all are equally 

 useful for the same purposes, yet the white gum is espe- 

 cially valued in house-building, while blue gum excels 

 it for ship-building. Ships built of this timber are 

 classed at Lloyd's A 1 for fourteen years. Stringy- 

 bark is a more straight-grained timber than either of 

 the others, and hence it is sought after for splitting 

 into paling, laths, and shingles ; the latter being used 

 for roofing houses instead of slates. On the other 

 hand, there are cross-grained gum trees of so tough a 

 nature, that ships' knees may be cut by the saw out 

 of a plank, and have all the strength of a naturally- 

 bent knee. It is remarkable, also, that the best tim- 

 ber from the gum trees is the outside part, the inside 

 often being hollow and decayed ; and it is no unusual 

 circumstance for the ship-builders at Hobart Town to 

 lay down the keel of a ship 120 feet long, composed 

 entirely of a single slab from the outer portion of a 

 gum tree. 



The Wattle Tree (Acacia dealbata), Fig. 3.— 

 There are about forty species of acacia in Australia, 

 all ornamental trees, but none exceed the wattle tree 

 in beauty, nor approach it in point of utility. It 

 forms umbrageous and delightfully scented groves 

 near the banks of streams and lakes. It is a hand- 

 some tree, from fifteen to thirty feet high, with mi- 

 nutely pinnate leaves, like the mimosa plant, from 

 which circumstance its bark is called the mimosa 

 bark, and forms an article of export from Australia 

 to Britain ; which, before the gold discovery, amply 

 remunerated the exporter, notwithstanding the great 

 distance, from the fact of its containing a greater 

 percentage of the principle tannin than any other 

 bark. It is most abundant in Van Diemen's Land, 

 Port-Philip, and Twofold Bay, and other parts of 

 the south coast, between the parallels of 34° and 38° 

 south latitude. The flower is a ball of yellow sta- 

 mens and pistils, from which insects derive much 

 nourishment. Wlien the acacia groves are in full 

 blossom, they send forth a fragrance which may be 

 detected at the distance of several miles ; and on ap- 

 proaching them they present one of the most pic- 

 turesque features in Australian forest scenery. This 

 plant yields a gelatinous gum of no value for the 

 purposes of commerce ; but its congener, A . implexa, 

 furnishes a soluble gum, little inferior to gum Arabic, 

 and fonnerly was an article of export from South 

 Austraha to this country. 



Australian Virgin Bower {Clematis Mossmana), 

 Fig. 4. — This beautiful climbing plant was discovered 

 by Mr. Mossman amongst the scnib forests of the 

 Australian Alps. It has a four-leaved white waxy 

 calyx, two to three inches in diameter, inclosing a 

 profusion of yellow stamens and styles, which give 

 forth a delicious orange perfume. The flowers blos- 

 som from October until January. Towards Mar.:-b 



and April its beauty is scarcely diminished, although 

 the flowers are gone ; for these are succeeded by fas- 

 ciculsB of long feathery awns, depending from the 

 pericarp, like bundles of floss silk. In the locality 

 above named, it climbs up the trunks and through 

 the branches of casuarina and arauoaria trees, hang- 

 ing in festoons from tree to tree, its climbing stem, 

 sometimes fifty feet long, with trifoliate leaves, and 

 serrated cordato-ovate leaflets. Nothing can exceed 

 the delicacy of contrast between the form and colour 

 of this climber amongst the foliage of these darkest 

 of the dark-hued Australian trees. Even the abori- 

 gines of the country are not insensible to its beauty, 

 particularly at seed-time, when it waves its silky 

 hair. These dusky children of nature at that time 

 adorn their heads with the stems, entwining them 

 several times round, thereby forming a silvery wreath 

 round their jet-black hair, which upon the young 

 women of the tribes has a most pleasing efl'ect. 



Grass Tree (Xanthorrhea hastilis), Fig. 5. — 

 Amongst the many curious forms of the vegetable 

 kingdom in the antipodean world, the grass tree ranks 

 not the least interesting. In general its presence is 

 indicative of a poor soil, therefore it is one of those 

 plants which give life to the sterility of a great por- 

 tion of Australia. It is an endogenous plant, and 

 attains its height from the annual decay of its long 

 grass-like leaves, from the centre of which proceeds 

 the flower-stalk, in every way having the form and 

 structure of the bulrush. From the bush-fires which 

 sweep through the country, the crooked stems of 

 these plants are almost always scorched black, so 

 that in the distance they have veiy much the appear- 

 ance of an aborigine crouching down. That they 

 themselves know this to bo the case has been shown, 

 in instances where they have been pursued by the 

 mounted police and squatters, after some murder or 

 depredation. In order to avoid pursuit, the more 

 cunning amongst them would twist their bodies in a 

 contorted manner, and stand immovable luitil their 

 I^ursuers had passed, unless the hounds used upon 

 these occasions would scent them out, and prove 

 them to be other than grass trees. Again, the ex- 

 plorer, in passing through a comitiy inhabited by 

 hostile natives, frequently takes these trees, in the 

 distance, to be groups of black men. When torn up 

 by the root after these frequent burning-s, a quantity 

 of a resinous gum, called gum acaroides, is gathered 

 in nodules, which has been found useful in manufac- 

 turing varnish. The natives use this gum for fasten- 

 ing on the barbs of their spears, made from fishes' 

 teeth or broken pieces of glass. 



EvERLASTiNO FLOWERS (Hdichrysum datum and 

 hracteatum), Figs. 6 and 7. — An arid region like 

 Australia is necessarily rich in specimens of dry 

 everlasting flowers, white and yellow. These gaudy 

 flowers form a great contrast with the surrounding 

 brushwood, where they grow, or at other times in the 

 clefts of rocks on the summits of mountains. For it 

 would appear that their hardy nature is proof against 

 aun and wind at the highest altitudes of Australian 

 vegetation, while the barren mountain-ridges furnish 

 BufRcient soil for their nourishment where other 



