182 KEW GARDENS 



which is what no one can say of John Bull's 

 oaks. 



The isolated specimens of Australian vegeta- 

 tion cabined and cribbed at Kew, give no fair 

 sample of the eucalyptus forests in which leagues 

 upon leagues of bare straight stems, standing 

 sullenly apart, will rise from a hundred to two 

 hundred feet before throwing out their scraggy 

 crown of dull and drooping foliage, that casts a 

 thin unchanging shade upon the ground littered 

 with peeling bark rather than with fallen leaves. 

 In this monotonous scenery one might be grate- 

 ful for our vernal woods and autumnal hedge- 

 rows ; and still more so when lost in one of the 

 " scrubs," packed close with malicious dwarf trees, 

 thorny bushes, spear-like grasses, and tangled 

 heaths, that are the dry jungles of Australia's 

 inland plains. 



Australia, besides her tree-like flowers, has 

 trees rich in bright blooms : the " fire-tree " and 

 the "flame-tree" that make a blaze of red and 

 orange upon hill-sides miles away, the crooked 

 " honeysuckle " with its yellow " bottle brushes," 

 the odd " grass-tree " bearing up a tuft of sharp 

 leaves from which springs several feet of flowery 

 stalk, the " miall-tree " with its streaming foliage 



