Snus'tratt'ond ai pf;»tti=(gc0cjrapt)ij. 



Xlll 



purposes, and its light feathery foliage, is 

 placed by the side of some small rattau as 

 ' the representative of the palms. Indeed 

 . grasses are regarded l>y many eminent 

 botanists as a sort of palm of lower grade. 

 In habit the two natural orders have much 

 in common : their leaves are formed upon 

 exactly the same plan, the only difference 

 ! being that those of the palms are generally 

 I (not always) divided. Even the siliceous 

 I secretions so characteristic of grasses, are 

 ; observable in rattans ; whilst about their 

 flowers, it may be said that those of the 

 . grasses are those of the palms, with the 

 floral envelopes removed and only the 

 bracts remaining. The group on the 

 j right-hand side of our plate affords a good 

 illustration of -the manner in which bain- 

 boos grow. They delight in humid local i- 

 j ties, and are the ornament of most tropical 

 rivers, often forming impenetrable thick- 

 ets, the favourite retreat of wild animals. 

 Their young shoots come up like aspara- J 

 gus, and in many Eastern countries are | 

 picked and preserved. The growth of the 

 stem is rapid in the extreme. Bambusa 

 gigantca was found to grow 25 feet 

 9 inches in length during the thirty-one 

 days of July, 1833, when it was measured 

 inthe Calcutta Botanic Garden; and in 

 I the Botanic Garden at Glasgow the same 

 i plant was ascertained to rise one foot in 

 i twenty-four hours : so that an attentive 

 ; observer could actually see a bamboo grow 

 I as plainly as he could see the movements 

 ' of the hands of a watch. [B. S.] 



VEGETATION OP NEW SOUTH 

 WALES, NEAR PORT JACKSON. 



(Plate V.) 



[REFERENCE. — a. Banksia; b. Xanthorrkcea.] 



The view here presented is that of Port 

 Jackson as it was when the illustrious 

 Bauer visited it, rather than as it is at the 

 present day, when Sydney has become a 

 large magnificent city, and its wealthy 

 inhabitants have scattered elegant villas 

 and country-seats all over the neighbour- 

 hood, when thousands of Araucarias have 

 been planted to give variety to the mono- 

 tony of the Australian vegetation, and 

 when foreign trees, shrubs, and weeds are 

 as fast taking the place of native produc- 

 tions as the white race has usurped that 

 of the black. Yet there is still a great 

 deal of the original vegetation left. Even 

 in Sydney itself, much that is seen in the 

 parks and gardens consists of gum trees 

 and other Myrtacece, which the hand of 

 j man has not planted. We need not go far 

 from the town still to see Banksias with 

 their thick coriaceous leaves and singular 

 flower-heads so much like a grenadier's 

 cap, or to come across the much more 

 singular gra=3 trees, with their charred 



trunks, grass-like leaves, and tall rod-like 

 scapes of flowers. We can still revel 

 amongst leafless Acacias, Metrosideros, 

 strange forms of Proteacece, and Australian 

 Bignonias ; visit forests where the trees 

 shed their bark instead of their leaves, and 

 all the leaves are turned edgeways ; or cast 

 our eyes over large tracts of country still 

 wearing the same evergreen, or rather 

 brownish-green, mantle which it wore 

 when Captain Cook and his naturalists first 

 set foot on the shores of Port Jackson, 

 then the unknown haunt of a few lawless 

 savages, now the capital of Australia and 

 the seat of the Governor-General. Unger, 

 in his ' New Holland in Europe,' has shown 

 us that at one period of the earth's history 

 there flourished in Europe a vegetation 

 very similar to that still beheld in Aus- 

 tralia ; but that the whole of it has been 

 swept away, to make room for other vege- 

 table forms, leaving no trace behind 

 except what is recorded in the great stone- 

 book of nature. Viewed in this light, the 

 vegetation of New Holland is highly in- 

 structive. It is a faithful picture of what 

 the aspect of the flora of our planet must 

 have been ages ago ; and on paying a visit 

 to Australia, we are as it were transporting 

 ourselves back to antehistorical periods. 

 The effect which such an inspection pro- 

 duces on one's mind is very singular. It 

 kindles within feelings of curiosity, but 

 no sympathy. We delight in bright green 

 foliage, sweet-smelling flowers, and fruits 

 with some kind of taste in them. But we 

 have here none of all that. The leaves are 

 of a dull green colour, the flowers have no 

 smell, and the fruits, without any excep- 

 tion, are tasteless and insipid. Not a single 

 edible plant has the whole of Australia 

 added to our tables, and Europeans who 

 should have to rely upon what Australian 

 vegetation can supply for their food, would 

 have to share the melancholy fate of Burke 

 and Wills when they tried to eke out their 

 existence by eating the wretched Nardoo 

 seeds of the Australian swamps. [B. S.J 



FOREST ON GUAHAN, ONE OF THE 

 MARIANNE ISLANDS. 



(Plate VI.) 



[Reference. — a. Ficus with suspended roots; 

 b Cycas circinalis ; c. Cordia ; d. Cycas 

 circinalis, old and branched ; e. Cerbera 

 Odollam ? ; f Gigantic Ficus ; g. Slender 

 leaved tandanusf\ 



As far as the Mariannes are represented 

 by Guahan, the most extensive and south- 

 ernmost of these islands, they are at once 

 distinguished, from the more northern 

 Caroline group by their dry climate, which 

 imparts to the whole country the look of 

 a steppe. The month of March, in which 

 our illustration was taken, is evidently the 



