42 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



A peculiar characteristic of the Eucalypt is its 

 habit of shedding its bark in the autumn ; the 

 long strips of bark remain for many months 

 loosely hanging on the trunks, and flap like sails 

 or streamers in the wind, a well-known sound in 

 the forest. 



Despite their insistent presence and the rather 

 sombre colour of their drooping leaves, one grows 

 to love the Eucalypt of the Australian forests, 

 not only for its peculiar beauty and the wealth 

 of life which it attracts, but also for its useful- 

 ness and the associations of pleasant camp life 

 which it calls up. For its young saplings furnish 

 tent-poles for the encampment, and in the evening 

 what splendid camp fires can be built up from 

 the fallen boughs which everywhere litter the 

 ground, and even the green branches with their 

 leaves blaze up with a clear flame, loading the 

 night air with the incense of their oils and the 

 very spirit of health. 



In the open country round Hobart, of which 

 we are speaking, scattered among the Gum-trees, 

 are various kinds of Wattles or Mimosas, spreading 

 bushy trees growing to forty or fifty feet in height, 

 with dark green feathery foliage, and covered in 

 the flowering-season with beautiful masses of 

 golden or white blooms. Clumps of BanJcsia, the 

 native Honeysuckle, one of the Proteaceae, stand 

 up almost black against the prevailing olivaceous 

 greens ; the flowers are in the form of large white 

 bottle-brushes, and the fruit which seems to be 



