GLOSSARY. 171 



Scrub-vine. — CASSYTHA MELANTHA. (Natural 

 Order, Laurine^.) — A leafless parasitical twiner, very com- 

 mon on Melaleuca ericifolia, the swamp tea tree, Eucalypti, 

 Acacias, etc. 



Seaweed. — ALG/E. Pp. 57, 59, 65. — Curious specimens of 

 marine vegetation ; many of them possessing useful qualities, 

 as, for instance, Iodine. — A curious form is Harmonia 

 AgardM, the Sea Grape, named so on account of the 

 grape-like floating bladders which burst with a crash when 

 trod upon. It is common on our coasts. 



Sensitive Mimosa.— MIMOSA SENSITIVA. (Natural 

 Order, Leguminos^e.) P. 28. — A tropical plant, worthy of 

 cultivation in hothouses on account of its peculiar sensitive- 

 ness to the touch. 



Sheoak.— CASUARINA. (Natural Order, Casuarine^e.) 

 Pp. 21, 55, 205. See also chapter 'Australian Vegetation,' 

 p. 85. — The black, gloomy appearance of these singular 

 trees is familiar to dwellers in the Australian bush, where 

 their leafless branches form one of the most striking features 

 of the landscape. A fewkinds only are indigenous to Victoria, 

 Casuarina suberosa (erect Sheoak or Victorian Beefwood) 

 being the most common. The shrubby species Casuarina 

 distyla and seven others, including C. quadrivalvis, are 

 abundantly scattered through Southern Australia. Like 

 many other names given by the earliest settlers, the term 

 oak was given to this genus because when worked up the 

 wood had some resemblance to that of the English oak, and 

 in fact was used like it for staves, for buckets, kegs, tubs, etc. 

 The species most common around Melbourne is known in 

 New South Wales as 'Forest Oak.' 



Silky Oak. — See ' Grevillea Robusta,' pp. 53, 125. — The 



