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Then our eucalypti contrast of vivid-coloured flowers, crimson, 

 scarlet, deep-pink and creamy-white, varying in height from 3 

 to 300 ft. ; the casuarinas, some stiff and rigid, others gracefully 

 drooping. Our Caper trees, especially Capparis Mitchelll, with 

 thick dense masses of leaves and large whitish-yellow blooms, the 

 brilliant flowered Hibiscus Hugelli or the yellow H. lakceafolia 

 blooming most in hottest weather; the rare desert Sterculia 

 Gregorii, with brilliant pale-green dense foliage. All these, with 

 innumerable others, are peculiar and endemic to Australia. 



Difficulties there are to be surmounted, and by money grants 

 the proposed Society could surmount them — difficulties arising 

 from our ignorance of the mineral requirements of the soil and 

 the conditions needed to propagate them. Take Exocarpos, be- 

 lieved to be parasitic in its youth, a point yet to be proved. And 

 the same applies to Nuytsia florabunda, the brilliant orange-flame 

 coloured Christmas-tree of Western Australia. If one or two of 

 our numerous parks surrounding Adelaide were set apart to grow 

 desert forms and cultivate with due knowledge and insight into 

 the landscape requirements the rarer casuarinas, eucalypts, Mela- 

 leucas, sterculias, and acacias it would soon become famous 

 throughout the world and its growing reputation greatly in- 

 creased for singular beauty. No other capital city of Australasia 

 has our natural advantages, and many of those rare curious 

 growths from desert regions will not grow with them. A due 

 appreciation and knowledge of our own flora and its esthetic 

 qualities would have prevented the intended rockeries on North 

 Terrace, almost sure to become "ratteries" bye and bye. These 

 rockeries suit St. Kilda Road, in Melbourne, but how monotonous 

 and wearying to the eves is the Alexandra Drive along the Yarra, 

 how commonplace and artificial compared with its lovely shady 

 native growths of forty years ago with hundreds of water-fowl 

 in the Princes Bridge lagoon. It has been said of North Terrace 

 that the soil is poor. So it is for exotic vegetation common to 

 all warm climates, but it is rich and suitable for many of our 

 indigenous Australians. To me it seems unfortunate that the 

 distinctive beauties peculiarly Australian should be sacrificed to 

 uniform imitation of European gardens, palling to the eyes by 

 their mechanical repetitions. 



One large section of natural history is now splendidly cared 

 for by the Ornithological Society, the members of which are to be 

 heartily congratulated on the successful transportation of the 

 mallee hen (Leipoa) to Flinders Chase. I feel sure of their cordial 

 help and assistance if the proposed Society provides the funds to 

 secure that inimitable joker and mimic the lyre-bird (Malura). 

 If that is once established on Kangaroo Island no other bird can 

 equal it in attractiveness. I trust, too, that Captain White and 

 Mr. Mellor will add the brush turkey also, and as opportunity 

 arises all the ground-nesting birds suited to the island climate. 



I cannot hope to see the full fruition of these ideals, but trust 

 the rising generation will hand on the torch, and though much 

 of the continent is despoiled and vulgarized, and my successors 

 cannot enjoy the delightful wanderings in unstocked, unspoilt 

 Australia which I have had, still increasing knowledge in science 

 will compensate them for the deprivation, and there yet are rare 

 plants to be found and named which invite the rambler and lover 

 of wild nature to cast off the trammels of luxury and spend his 

 holidays in the solitary bush. 



