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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



difficulties to the work of collecting. All zones of plant life are 

 here represented, from the Alpine vegetation to the luxuriant 

 and varied flora of the tropics ; and it is a record of which we 

 who have made Australia our adopted home may be reasonably 

 proud that so many species, totally different in so many respects 

 from those included in other and better-known floras, have been 

 so closely observed and so carefully and accurately described. 

 When we consider that there are countries — each with a history 

 going back far beyond the commencement of the Christian era, 

 each the birthplace of generations of eminent scientific men — 

 that have never yet had their floras described as systematically 

 as ours, we cannot but feel the deepest admiration for the 

 scientific genius, perseverance, and research by means of which 

 such splendid results have been achieved. Australian botanical 

 science presents an illustrious roll of indefatigable workers. 



It is a matter of great regret that so many of the names 

 bestowed on native plants and animals by the pioneer settlers 

 are singularly inappropriate. Thus " Gum-tree " is the colonial 

 name for all species of Eucalypts. The Banksias are known as 

 " Honeysuckles." Our native " Fuchsia " is a Correct belonging 

 to the Paitacea. Exocarpus cupressiformis is the native 

 i: Cherry." "She Oak : ' is the name given to some of the 

 Casuarinas, whose cone-like fruits are called " Oak-apples." 

 Australian 11 Tea-trees " are members of the order Myrtacea, 

 and include plants belonging to the genera ILelaleuca and 

 Leptospeiinum, while " Native Hops " represent various species 

 of Dodoncea and Goochnia, or maybe Daviesia latifolia. And 

 so this list might be almost indefinitely extended. 



The flora of Australia presents many peculiarities, of which 

 much capital has often been made. Thus our trees are, many 

 of them, peculiar in giving but little shade. Some are leafless. 

 Our Cherry is stated to grow its stone outside the fruit — really 

 on a succulent fruit stalk — while our Pear (Xylomelum pyri- 

 forme), one of the Proteads, is not only wooden but reversed on 

 its stalk, and our Nettle assumes the proportions of a fair-sized 

 tree up to 100 feet in height, and so we might go on. 



The first thing that will probably strike a botanical observer 

 in Australia is the great extent and wide distribution of its 

 forests, composed chiefly of Eucalypts. which form the principal 

 timber vegetation of the continent with perhaps the exception 



