EUCALYPTUS TEEES. 125 



less uaite here, sooner or later, to bring to bear the 

 sum of their knowledge, earned by a life-long toil, for 

 giving vitality to that information which is to enter 

 guidingly into the ordinary purposes of life. Thus, 

 the happiness and prosperity of our fellow-men should 

 be enhanced and exalted, and one of the loftiest ob- 

 jects of our striving after truths be fulfilled. 



But the unassuming worker, conscious how far his 

 own honest intentions advanced beyond his best re- 

 sults, may well exclaim with Moore, in his soft melo- 

 dies : 



"Ah I dreams too full of saddening truth. 

 Those mansions o'er the main 

 Are like the hopes I built in youth. 

 As Bunixy, and as vaini " 



Let us first take a glance at one of our innumerable 

 forest glens. We see in the deep, rich detritus of 

 rocks and fallen leaves, accumulated in past centu- 

 ries some of the grandest features of the world's veg- 

 etation. Pern-trees* rise, at least exceptionally, to 

 a height of eighty feet, higher, therefore, than any 

 other parts of the globe, unless in Norfolk Island. 

 Mammoth-Eucalypts abound, having, in elevation, 

 rivals only in the Californian Sequoia Wellingtonia ; 

 we may, indeed, obtain, from one individual tree, 

 planks enough to freight almost a ship of the tonnage 

 of the Q-reat Britain. Todea Ferns, now sought in 

 trade, occur in these recesses, weighing, deprived of 

 their fronds, almost a ton ; and, if the Xanthorrhceas 

 do resemble, as popularly thought, our once spear- 

 armed natives, then the Todea stems bear certainly 

 as justly a resemblance to large black bears, as has 

 bee# comically contended. The Fan Palms,! though 



* Alsophila Australia, B, Br, 

 t Corypha (LiyiGtona) Australis, E. Br, 

 7 



