372 AUSTEALASIA. 



The splendour and exuberance, if not the variety, of vegetable growths depends 

 above all on the abundance of the rainfall. Thus the lovely family of palms, 

 which might be supposed restricted to the tropical part of Australia, seems almost 

 independent of latitude, here following the seaboard far to the south of the torrid 

 zone. No members of this group occur on the arid west side of the continent. A 

 narrow belt of palms is seen only along the northern and eastern shores as far 

 south as New South Wales, where the slopes of the hills beyond Sydney in 35° 

 S. latitude are still shaded by the Uvistona, which here grows to a height of over 

 80 feet. In its palm flora, as in so many other respects, Australia resembles South 

 Africa. 



The pandanus penetrates southwards no farther than Moreton Bay, on the 

 Queensland coast, and in general the Australian tropical is less original than the 

 temperate flora. Numerous Indian and Malayan species give it in many places an 

 Indonesian aspect ; but there also occur in the tropical zone a few forms of quite a 

 special character, which, however, occupy a very narrow area. Such are, near 

 Hanover Bay on the north-west coast, those remarkable capparis, which grow to a 

 considerable height, and whose branches, laden with fruits as large as cocoanuts, 

 bend gracefully over in the form of a vast canopy. The stem is always inflated, 

 bulging out like a pumpkin and giving a sickly appearance to the plant. Its fruit, 

 however, is excellent, and the white gum obtained by incision of the bark resembles 

 macaroni both in flavour and colour. 



Amongst plants restricted to a narrow range botanists have also discovered on 

 the New South Wales uplands some forms belonging to the north European 

 regions. Of these Hooker enumerates 38, including varieties of the ranunculus, 

 gentian, and myosotis. Since the arrival of the whites the vegetation has been 

 greatly modified, and some northern forms have not only invaded Australia, but 

 have spread thence to New Caledonia and other South-Sea Islands. According to 

 Hooker there are at present over 200 perfectly acclimatised European plants in the 

 Sydney district, where they grow freely without the aid of artificial cultivation. 



Amongst the 950 species of trees which attain a height of at least 30 feet the 

 most common are those with small slender leaves, throwing off but slight evapora- 

 tion and affording little shade. The genus acacia is represented by no less than 

 320 species, some almost destitute of true foliage, but overladen in spring-time 

 with fragrant blossom. The casuarina also lacks a fully developed foliage, but is 

 covered with little rigid branchlets, and often presents a black, withered appear- 

 ance. This family is very numerous, as is also that of the so-called grass-tree 

 [xanthorrhœa), which is characterised by a large tuft of wiry, grass-like foliage 

 shooting up from the stem, with a spike like a bulrush in the centre, which is 

 covered in summer with a mass of white blossom. 



In Queensland is met another curious forest plant, the bottle- tree, so named 

 from its shape. But the Australian tree in a pre-eminent sense is the eucalyptus, 

 or gum-tree, of which there are about a hundred different species. Amongst these 

 is the famous eucalyptus globulus, to which have been attributed so many curative 

 properties, and which is said to exceed all other trees in mean height, with 



