AUSTRALIAN VEGETATION. 89 



ness and picturesque effect that of the brush-lands of 

 northern New South Wales and Queensland. Where it is 

 found in its pristine grandeur it would delight the most 

 unimpressive ; and as it approaches the mountains its 

 magnificence increases. No lover of nature, however 

 unacquainted with botany he may be, can fail to admire 

 the effect produced by a gigantic Moreton Bay fig, 1 with 

 its huge winding spurs standing out from it on every 

 side. In some of the spaces between the buttresses, a 

 score or more of persons might find concealment. A 

 Moreton Bay, chestnut (Casta?wspe?'mum australe)^ Jambosa 

 a Flindersia, or perhaps a native plum {Achras), is often 

 almost absorbed within its trunk. Nelit?'is mgens, the 

 ' scarlet scrub myrtle,' whose branches sometimes bend 

 with the weight of brilliant fruits, clustered among oblong, 

 vividly-green leaves, presents a glorious contrast with the 

 golden-yellow blooms of the Queensland cigar Cassia (C. 

 Breivsteri), having flowers quite as bright as those of the 

 Laburnum, which it somewhat resembles. Specimens of 

 the Bangalo palm (Ptychosperma (Seaforthta) elegans), 



1 The frontispiece of this work is from a sketch by the author, and 

 was published some years ago in the Sydney Mail. It represents a 

 specimen of the Moreton Bay fig {Fiats macrophylla), as seen at 

 Cudgen, Tweed River, which is between fifty and sixty miles from 

 Brisbane. The extent of the growth of this remarkable tree may be 

 inferred from the relative size of the men at its base. The tropical 

 character of the surrounding vegetation, consisting principally of 

 cabbage palms, Cycas, Zamias, tree-ferns, cedar trees, etc., clothed 

 with Dendrobium, Cymbidium, and other orchids, together with 

 epiphytal ferns, the whole interlaced with climbers, amidst a rank 

 undergrowth of pretty dwarf shrubs, will convey, by the sketch, some 

 idea of the luxuriance of the natural scenery in parts of northern New 

 South Wales and Queensland. 



