174 FOBEST CULTtJBE Aiffl 



eronia palmicola are more minute than those- of any 

 other orchideous plant, although more than two thou- 

 sand species are known from various parts of the globe. 

 The display of trees eligible for avenues from these 

 jungles is large. The tall Fern- palm (Zamia Deniso- 

 nil), one of the most stately members of the varied 

 Australian vegetation, is widely, but nowhere copi- 

 ously, diffused along the east coast ; it yields a kind 

 of sago, like allied plants. The beans of Castanosper- 

 raum Australe, which are rich in starch, and those of 

 Entada purssetha, from a pod often four feet long, are, 

 with very many other vegetable substances, on which 

 Mons. Thozet has shed much light, converted by the 

 aborigines into food. 



If plants representing the genera Berberis, Impa- 

 tiens, Rosa,- Begonia, Ilex, Rhododendron, Vaceini- 

 um, or, perhaps, even Firs, Cypresses, and Oaks, do 

 at all occur in Australia, as in the middle regions of 

 the mountains of India, it will be on the highest hills 

 of north-east Australia — namely, on the Bellenden 

 Ker Ganges, mountains still unapproachable through 

 the hostility of the natives — where they wUl find the 

 cooler and simultaneously moist, tropical climate con- 

 genial to their existence. But whatever may be the 

 variety and wealth of the primitive flora of East Aus- 

 tralia, it is only by the active intelligence and exer- 

 tions of man that the greatest riches can be wrought 

 from the soil. "Whatever plants he may choose to 

 raise — whatever costly spices, luscious fruits, expen- 

 sive dyes ; whether cacao, manihot, or other aliment- 

 ary plants ; whether sugar, coffee, or any others of 

 more extensive tropical tillage — for all may be found 

 wide tracts fitted for their new home. 



