AUSTRALIAN FLORA. 373 



perhaps the single exception of the weUingtotiia of California and Oregon. But this 

 prerogative is by others assigned to the Regnans variety of eucalyptus amygdalina, 

 which attains its greatest size on the mountain slopes of eastern Victoria, where 

 trunks have been measured no less than 480 feet long.* Gums 420 feet high are 

 by no means rare in the gorges of Victoria and Tasmania ; but farther north 

 scarcely any are met exceeding 200 feet. Those growing on the Tasmanian 

 uplands shoot straight up like bamboos, without any branches below a height of 

 50 or 60 feet. When the wind whistles through the ravines, the strips of bark 

 hanging from these tall stems clash together with a weird, creaking sound as of 

 moaning spirits. Growing only on the slopes of the hills, the giant gum-trees are 

 not seen to full advantage from a distance. 



In Australia there are scarcely any dense forests with a tangled growth of 

 interwoven branches and creepers, as in most tropical regions ; nor are there many 

 woodlands with close-set stems, as in the pine and fir plantations of north Europe. 

 As a ride, the trees lie wide apart, like those of the English parks, and beneath 

 their shade stretches the grassy sward, where formerly grazed herds of kangaroos, 

 now mostly replaced by flocks of sheep. Till recently these open wooded tracts 

 covered the greater part of the western slope of the New South AVales and Queens- 

 land uplands ; but farther west, towards the centre of the continent, they give place 

 to scrub, usually consisting of thorny plants, such as acacias, dwarf eucalyptus or 

 spinifex {triodia irrita ns), growing together in thickets. North of the 28° south 

 latitude, where this scrub prevails, men and animals often find it impossible to 

 make way, and many travellers, unable to force a path through the spinifex, have 

 been fain to change their route or retrace their steps. 



The dense growths of eucalyptus diimosa, the maUie of the natives, are also a 

 great obstacle to explorers, though they may still be traversed. They have the 

 appearance of tall bulrushes, growing to a height of 10 or 12 feet before throwing off 

 any branches, and completely covering the ground with a uniform sea of verdure, 

 in which the wayfarer disappears, while laboriously striving to force a passage. 

 The cuttings made for highways across these mallie thickets are as sharp and 

 clearly defined as those of roads flanked by walls. Of the scrubby tracts the most 

 easily penetrated are those composed of melaleuca, a shrub which resembles the 

 myrtle, and which grows in clusters with free intervening spaces. The natives of 

 the desert regions are acquainted with a plant, the pitchouri (ctitboisia hopwoodii), 

 whose leaves reduced to powder sustain them on long journeys, and keep off the 

 pangs of hunger. When fighting they continually chew these leaves, which 

 appear to have the effect of exciting their warlike spirit to a pitch of frenzy. 



A beginning has long been made in the process of disafforesting Australia. 

 About the year 1860 some stockbreeders entertained the idea of extending their 

 grazing grounds by clearing away the forest growths that clothed the slopes of the 

 hills. The process of felling the eucalyptus and other large trees would have been 

 too slow and two expensive ; hence the squatters had recourse to the more expe- 

 ditious plan of barking the stems. This practice spread rapidly, and by 1880 at 

 * G-eorge Sutherland, amongst others, declares this to be " undoubtedly the largest tree in the world." 



