128 



THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



ing instead of boards, it is very durable. An- 

 other useful timber is the spotted gum, but it 

 is not so hard. The most stately trees are the 

 pines {auracavia), they grow to an enormous 

 height, some of them over 200 feet. The 

 timber is very good, colour whitish, hard, but 

 a little brittle, they are seldom found 

 growing on the plains, but usually on the 

 ridges and slopes. 



The Botanical and Geological aspect of 

 160 square miles of country you may 

 imagine is varied ; Botanically it is very 

 rich, there is almost every conceivable form 

 of plant life to be found, from the magnificent 

 Tree-fern (Dicksonii Anarctica), down to the 

 smallest possible speck. The creeks and 

 lagoons teem with aquatics, some of them 

 most enchanting. The scrub lands are the 

 best for dry land botany. By the scrub, 

 you will doubtless fancy that it is a sort of 

 rough country, with short stunted trees and 

 bushes, but 'tis not so, the scrub contains 

 some of the largest trees in the colony — the 

 native fig to-wit, which often attains a height 

 of from 200 to 250 feet, is exclusively a 

 scrub plant. There is a monster on our 

 run, over 200 feet high, with a trunk two 

 fathoms in diameter, the solid stem is 

 thirty-six feet five inches in circumference, 

 the base is hollow, looking as if it were 

 supported on numerous piles. The cavity is 

 quite capable of comfortably holding twenty- 

 five or thirty persons. The pines and many 

 species of the gum trees are scrub plants. 

 To me the scrub is most wonderful, it 

 seems as if nature had tried how many 

 trees &c. could be grown on the smallest 

 possible space. It is impossible to crawl 

 into it in some places, let alone walking. 

 Except ferns and orchids nothing grows on 

 ground beneath the shadow of these scrub 

 giants, and even they do not confine them- 

 selves to terra firma, but may be found on 

 the trunks of the trees forty or. fifty feet 

 above " mud level." Of course there are 

 plenty of climbers and twiners, but their 



aim seems to be to get to the top as soon as 

 possible, which they usually accomplish 

 after describing the circumference of the 

 tree that supports them, fifty or a hundred 

 times. They always overtop the tree, and 

 in many instances run off at right angles, 

 and by this means tie six or more trees 

 together. The strongest climber is the 

 Moreton Bay bignonia, it grows very rapidly 

 in the scrub, one day I traced a shoot 

 seventeen yards along- the ground, then up 

 a fig tree to the top. But it is at the edge of 

 the scrub just outside, where Flora reigns 

 supreme, where it is half bush half scrub. 

 They grow some very handsome shrubs, one 

 of the most effective when in flower is the 

 " curri jong," that is the Australian name. It 

 is a hibiscus belonging to the natural order 

 Malvacea, the flowers are very large and 

 showy, especially the scarlet variety, 

 measuring three inches across the petals, 

 the centre is of a rich dark chocolate and 

 yellow colour, it is a free bloomer and an 

 evergreen. It grows to a height of from 

 twenty to forty feet, the wood is remarkably 

 soft, we can strike an axe head out of sight 

 at one blow. In several of the creeks 

 which run through the scrubs, splendid 

 specimens of the tree ferns grow, in a gully 

 on the west side of our run ten miles from 

 here there are some very fine ones, the 

 tallest one measures in height twenty five 

 feet of stem, with a glorious top of feathery 

 fronds. There is also a nest called the 

 "bird's nest fern," which grows on the 

 trunk of trees, it has a frond like the common 

 harts-tongue (Scolopendrium) only much 

 larger. Some of the orchids are very lovely 

 when in flower, otherwise they are not very 

 attractive. 



Now for the fruit of the country, this is 

 eminently the land of promise. In our 

 garden we have oranges, apples, quinces, 

 lemons, pomegranates, mulberries, guavas, 

 loquats, figs, peaches, cherries, china plums, 

 and any quantity of grapes. For " veget- 



