PREFATORY AND OTHER NOTES. 15 



The whole of the present book is taken up in enumerating the 

 forms of vegetable life which meet the eye of the traveller in 

 passing over the vast lands and waters of Queensland, and if one 

 has an eye for the beauties of Flora's Kingdom we may safely 

 imagine one repeating the following lines of Cowper : — 



Lovely indeed the mimic works of Art, 

 But Nature's works far lovelier : I admire, 

 None more admires, the painter's magic skill, 



* * * # * 



But imitative strokes can do no more 



Than please the eye, sweet Nature ev'ry sense, 



The air salubrious of her lofty hills, 



The cheery fragrance of her dewy vales, 



And music of her woods — no works of man 



May rival these; these all bespeak a power 



Peculiar, and exclusively her own. 



22nd November, 1909. F.M.B. 



