VISITING THE GARDENS 181 



from ours, where colonial children must be 

 puzzled by our poets' view of January and of 

 July, as we are by allusions seasonable at the 

 other end of the world : 



Perspiring round our Christmas fare, 

 In vain we long for snow : 

 Midsummer day, we fain would sit 

 Around the Yule-tide's glow. 



The characteristic growth of Australia is the 

 eucalyptus or gum-tree, in its many varieties, 

 among which the blue gum is best known as 

 widely transplanted to thrive in Europe and 

 other parts of the globe. One species seems 

 entitled to the distinction of being the tallest of 

 trees, growing to a height of four hundred and 

 fifty feet and more, so as perhaps to look down 

 even upon the mammoth sequoia of California, 

 which we have so impertinently renamed the 

 Wellingtonia. The question of aerial precedence 

 between these two, indeed, depending upon 

 doubtful measurements, may be taken as not 

 quite settled, and Uncle Sam is loth to admit 

 anything of his as less than the greatest in 

 the world ; but he should know how Sir J. D. 

 Hooker is quoted by Grant Duff as setting 

 down his boastful mammoths for ugly trees, 



