132 FOEEST CULTURE ANP 



has been secured * for preserving some relics of its 

 most ancient trees to convey to posterity an idea of 

 the original features of our primeval forests. Though 

 it may appear foreign to my subject, I cannot with- 

 hold also on this occasion an imploring word, more 

 particularly when I notice land - proprietors in East 

 Australia to hold not even sacred a single native 

 I5anyan-tree, which required centuries for building 

 its expansive dome and its hundreds of columnar pil- 

 l.irs ; nor to allow a single Cyrtosia Orchid to continue 

 with its stem trailing to the length of thirty feet, and 

 to remain with its thousands of large, fragrant blos- 

 soms, the pride of the forest. That very Cyrtosia 

 gives a clue to the affinity and structure of other plants 

 not nearer to us than Java ; and its destruction, with 

 probably that of many others which the naturalist 

 forever is now prevented to dissect, or the artist to 

 delineate, or the museum custodian to preserve, will 

 be a loss to systematic natural history, also, forever. 

 Again, in a spirit of Vandalism, a Fan-Palm, after a 

 hundred years' growth, is no longer allowed to raise 

 its slender stem aud lofty crown in our own forests of 

 Gipps Land, simply because curiosity is prompted to 

 obtain a dishful of Palm-Cabbage at the sacrifice of a 

 century's growth. 



Let it be remembered that the uncivilized inhabit- 

 ants of many a tropical country know how to respect 

 the original and not always restorable gifts of a boun- 

 tiful Providence. They will invaribly climb the Palm- 



* On the Kiver Hastings some magnificent dales have been lately protected 

 by the Government of New South Wales for the sake of the incomparably 

 beautiful and grand native vegetation, an example deserving extensive imi- 

 tation. The forests of the Bunya Araucaria, occupying only a limited natu- 

 ral area, wo ajso secured ngaioat intrusioji by the povcrpment, 



