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APPENDIX. 



plants would perish. They are favourites with tlie 

 aboriginal women in decorating their hair. 



She-Oak {Casuarina pendtda), Fig. 8, \s one of 

 those arborescent plants, typical of extinct European 

 vegetation, of which there are so many examples in 

 the Australian flora. It bears the anomalous name 

 of she-oak amongst the colonists, which is a corrup- 

 tion of the native name slieack. Although an exogen 

 in the structure of its branches and trunk, which dis- 

 plays an unusually large development of the medul- 

 lary rays, the casuarina possesses no true leaves. The 

 pendulous articulations which serve for that purpose, 

 are formed in the same manner as the whorls of 

 Hippuris vulgaris, the common mare's tail, and 

 these are analogous in structure to the lepidodendra 

 of the transition epoch, as seen in their fossil remains, 

 so that the casuarinw of Australia may be considered 

 existing types of the extinct arborescent equisetacew, 

 which flourished during the carboniferous era, and 

 assisted greatly in forming the strata of the coal- 

 measures. Their average height is from fifteen to 

 twenty feet, the trunks disproportionately thick com- 

 pared to their size, and spreading out at the but 

 with thick, firmly imbedded roots. The colour of 

 its scanty foliage is of the darkest green, which, to- 

 gether with^he dark hue of its rough bark, rendere a 

 clump of those trees like a black patch in the land- 

 scape. Its usual habitat is by the borders of running 

 streams, and hence it is regarded especially by the 

 settlers in that arid country. But its most charac- 

 teristic location is by the sea-side, where it flourishes 

 in dense groves. Here, upon the poorest soil, and 

 at the utmost verge of the land, these hardy trees 

 brave the salt spray, which showers upon them from 

 the surf. While we have designated the gum tree 

 forests as cheerful, though monotonous, and the vine 

 scrubs as dense and gloomy, these casuarina groves 

 may with equal propriety be called melancholy. 

 Seated under the dark canopy of thread-like foliage, 

 the winds sigh overhead as they create a stridulous 

 murmur amongst the leaves, producing a mournful 

 sound, which is heightened by the distant surge of 

 the ocean. The leaves are nourishing, and relished 

 by horses and cattle, while, on the gTound where 

 they fall, they prevent the vegetation of grasses and 

 herbs, and are slow in decomposition. The timber is 

 of a hard and tough kind, and is much prized by the 

 aborigines, who cut their boomerangs and clubs from 

 portions of the but, while the tree is growing. 



Cabbage-Palm {Coryplia Axistralh), Tig. 9. — ^As 

 a contrast to the foregoing in pleasing beauty and ha- 

 bitat, we may class the oabbage-palm. Their graceful 

 stems and light green leaves shun the bleak hillside, 

 and seek for shelter in the waim fertile meadow-lands. 

 In clearing these rich patches of alluvial soil, the 

 farmer rarely cuts down the cabbage-palm, particu- 

 larly as it is not abundant throughout the colony. 

 Moreover, the leaves, when dried, are highly valued 

 formaking men's sailor-brimmed hats. For this pur- 

 pose they are cut up into strips about the width of a 

 straw, and plaited zigzag fashion, which are sewn 

 strongly together to the required shape ; and few hats 

 stand the climate more serviceably than an Australian 



cabbage-palm hat. The name of cabbage is given to 

 it in consequence of the young leaves, before emerg- 

 ing from their sheath, furnishing a vegetable mass not 

 unlike a cabbage, and which, upon emergencies, the 

 traveller has found a nutritious farinaceous kind of 

 food. Otherwise, this tree is the same as its great 

 congeners found in tropical climates, and attains an 

 average height of fifty feet. 



Captain Cook's Tea-Teee {Leptospermum scopa- 

 Hum), Fig. 10. — When our distinguished country- 

 man and navigator. Captain Cook, arrived in these 

 distant southern regions, after long and harassing 

 voyages thither, it was amongst his first duties, for 

 preserving the health of his crews, to look for some 

 wholesome herbs on shore, as a corrective to the 

 fatal effects of scurvy. The plant, known through- 

 out Australasia as Captain Cook's tea-tree, was 

 found by him to contain a curative principle in 

 addition to this. A decoction of its leaves drank 

 like tea — hence the name — proved a most efficient 

 medicine. Its leaves are much smaller than those of 

 the tea-plant, but the seed-vessels are very similar. 

 It bears rosaceous white blossoms eight months in 

 the year, and grows most luxuriantly on marshy 

 ground, from six to twenty feet high. What are 

 termed tea-tree scrubs among the settlers, are dense 

 thickets of this plant along the swampy margins of 

 streams, where the stems grow as straight and supple 

 as willow-wanda, which are useful in "wattling" the 

 sides of huts, i.e., forming a, kind of basket-work 

 upon upright posts, to be covered with mortar. In 

 Van Diemeu's Land and New Zealand, where it 

 grows abundantly, the settlers make a palatable and 

 wholesome beer from it; and in Port-Philip, in 1841, 

 when tea rose from £3 to £15 per chest, many of the 

 poorer class of settlers used it as a substitute. 



The Bottle-brush Plant (Banlcsia mwrginata). 

 Fig. 11. — This genus of plants numbers about thirty 

 known species, and is peculiar to Australia. Except- 

 ing for firewood, they are of no utility to the settler ; 

 yet, in the economy of nature, they foi-m a binding 

 root for the sandy shores of bays and inlets on the 

 coast. They generally present a stunted appearance, 

 with dry rigid leaves, producing the compound flower 

 which gives them their familiar name. This species 

 rarely exceeds six feet in height, but the Banlcsia 

 serratifolia attains sometimes twenty feet. 



DWAKF Native Chebkt {Exocarpus hmtiifusus). 

 Fig. 12. — As contrasting with its dry nature, the 

 dwarf native cherry is distinguished by its succu- 

 lent properties, and gxowing in swamps. This spe- 

 cies and.E. strictus bear a small drupe, with the stone 

 at the base outside, which is called the native cherry 

 by the colonists, and possesses a sweet flavour. 



Geeat-flowered Australian Heath (Epacris 

 grandlflora). Fig. 13. — This beautiful heath is now a 

 favourite ornamental hot-house plant. Although the 

 EpacridacecB are, strictly speaking, not true heaths, 

 yet plants of that order resemble the Ericacece in al- 

 most every character, excepting that the anthers are 

 one-celled, and opening longitudinally, whereas the 

 others are two-celled, and dehiscing by a pore. In 

 other respects they serve the same economy in nature. 



