20 THE VICLORIAN NATURALIST. 
The highly experienced Pteridographer, J. G. Baker, records in 
Britten’s ‘‘ Journal of Botany for 1885,” p. 19, Selaginella Wallichi 
from New Guinea, and at p. 46 Selaginella latifolia. 
Strange, as it may appear, Mr. Armit brought already Manzhot 
utilissima from remote places of New Guinea, where hardly any 
previous intercourse with Europeans took place. 
CHARLES DARWIN ON AUSTRALIA. 
By A. H. 8. Lucas, M.A. 
Read before the Field Club, 5th March, 1885. 
In that perhaps most interesting volume of travels ever written, 
Darwin’s “ Naturalist’s Voyage Round the World,” there is a chapter 
on Australia. In 1836, Darwin visited Port Jackson, Hobart 
Town and King George's Sound, spending 18, 10, and 8 days in their 
neighbourhoods respectively. The great naturalist had thus oppor- 
tunities of studying nature in New South Wales, in Tasmania, 
and in Western Australia. To Australian naturalists the im- 
pressions of the great thinker must be interesting; and I have 
thought that a critical study of this chapter may be not without 
value. 
Briefly then, Darwin may be said to have been terribly bored 
from the time when this land first rose before his eyes till it faded 
from their vision. The entrance to Port Jackson disappointed him. 
“Instead of beholding a verdant country interspersed with fine 
houses, a straight line of yellowish cliff brought to our minds the 
coast of Patagonia.” Even inside the harbour he notices “the thin 
scrubby trees, bespeaking the curse of sterility.” ‘‘ Proceeding further 
inland,” z.e., to the inmost shrine of Sydney Harbour, nuw looked 
upon as a very Bay of Naples, he coldly, says, “the country 
improves.” At Sydney itself his first feelings are those of intense 
admiration, of self-congratulation that he is an Englishman, but, 
“upon seeing more of the town afterwards, perhaps my admiration 
fell a little.’ It struck him, though Melbourne men may not agree 
with the observation, that the streets of Sydney “ are regular, broad, 
clean. and kept in excellent order.” 
After three days in Sydney, Darwin started for Bathurst. 
Speaking of the woodland as it appeared in January, he says freely, 
‘T cannot imagine a more complete contrast, in every respect, than 
between the forests of Valdivia or Chiloe, and the woods of Australia.” 
This is a magnificent generalisation, it must be admitted, after a 
day’s ride through the open timber of the lowlands of New South 
Wales. To those who are now familiar with the tropical forests of 
Queensland and the grand high woods of our ranges, it may seem 
