154 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
cones produced by this araucaria are each as large as a child’s head. 
One of these trees commenced to bear them a few years ago. The 
seeds, both raw and roasted, are eaten by the aborigines of Australia. 
A curious fact about this tree is related by Bennett in his “ Austral- 
asia.” He says that each tribe possesses its own group of trees, 
which are distributed among the various families and pass as hereditary 
property from generation to generation. Allied trees, also notice- 
able for their great size and distinct appearance, are the Norfolk 
Island pine ( Araucaria excelsa), A. Cunninghami from Queensland, 
and A. Cooki from New Caledonia. 
The most characteristic of Australian trees are the eucalypti or 
gum-trees. Some of them more than rival the mammoth trees of 
Gum Trees California in height, if not in bulk. Fallen trees have 
been measured and found to be over 400 feet long, 
and some authorities describe specimens 480 feet high. A forest 
of gum-trees has a curious aspect to northern eyes. The foliage of 
most of them is of a peculiar grey, lustreless hue, and as the edges 
of the leaves (not their broad surfaces) are turned towards the sun, 
the forests have a curiously light and shadowless appearance. It 
is unfortunate that these trees can only be represented in a young 
state in this house. 
Australia has very many beautiful flowering plants, but chief 
amongst them are the acacias. They are represented here by a great 
variety of species. The flowers are of varying shades 
of yellow, and are produced in tiny balls or cylindrical 
clusters. In foliage and mode of growth there is a great diversity. 
Many of the acacias thrive to perfection on the Riviera ; at Cannes, 
in particular, they are abundant. The flowering branches of one 
of them, Acacia dealbata, are exported to England to the value of 
4,000,000 francs annually. The species is well known in the London 
flower shops as “ mimosa.” The acacia season in the Winter Garden 
is from February to April. 
The tree-ferns constitute an attractive and striking feature. They 
are really a tropical and semi-tropical type of vegetation, inhabiting 
Tree Ferns s ^ a< ^y> m °ist glens and forests, and having the general 
aspect of a palm ; but they are infinitely more graceful. 
Alfred R. Wallace says there is nothing in tropical vegetation 
so perfectly beautiful. In the islands of Australasia several species 
occur which grow to perfection under conditions as cool as those 
Acacias. 
