ferns festooned with creepers and parasitic plants in the richest pro- 
fusion, the continuity of which is here and there broken by rich open 
meadow-like districts admirably adapted for the pasturing of cattle, 
and to which, from the frequent occurrence of the Angophorce , a 
tribe of trees in which the settlers see a fancied resemblance to the 
apple-trees of Europe, the name of Apple-tree Flats has been given. 
Within the ranges, on the other hand, we find immense open downs 
and grassy plains, studded here and there with detached belts and 
forests of Eucalypti , Acacicc, &c., presenting a park-like appearance, 
to which, as we advance farther towards the interior, succeed either 
extensive marshes or land of a most sterile description. The face of 
this vast country consequently presents much variety of aspect ; the 
infrequency of rain tends much to give a sombre brown hue to the 
surface of the interior, which however is relieved by the constant ver- 
dure of its trees, the peculiar lanceolate form and the pendent position 
render them almost shadowless. It is in the neighbour- 
hood of the few rivers which intersect the country, and in the 
lower flats flooded by the waters, when floods occur, that we 
find the vegetation more luxuriant and the trees attaining a far 
greater size ; the sides of the rivers are moreover fringed with Ca- 
suarince and other trees, which, although of large size, never arrive 
at the altitude of the stately Eucalypti , which attain, under favourable 
circumstances, a size and height which appear perfectly incre- 
dible. Mr. Backhouse states that one measured by him on the Lop- 
ham Road, near Emu Bay in Van Diemen’s Land, which “ was rather 
hollow at the bottom and broken at the top, was 49 feet round at 
about 5 feet from the ground ; another that was solid, and sup- 
posed to be 200 feet high, was 41 feet round ; and a third, supposed 
to be 250 feet high, was 55^- feet round. As this tree spread much 
at the base, it would be nearly 70 feet in circumference at the sur- 
face of the ground. My companions spoke to each other when at 
the opposite side of this tree from myself, and their voices sounded so 
distant that I concluded they had inadvertently left me, to see some 
other object, and immediately called to them. They in answer re- 
marked the distant sound of my voice, and inquired if I w ere behind 
the tree ! When the road through this forest was forming, a man 
who had only about tw^o hundred yards to go, from one company of 
work-people to another, lost himself : he called, and was repeatedly 
answered ; but getting further astray, his voice became more indi- 
stinct, till it ceased to be heard, and he perished. The largest trees 
do not always carry up their width in proportion to their height, but 
many that are mere spars are 200 feet high.” 
A prostrate tree noticed by Mr. Backhouse in the forest near the 
junction of the Emu River with the Loudwater “ was 35 feet in cir- 
cumference at the base, 22 feet at 66 feet up, 19 feet at 110 feet up; 
there w r ere two large branches at 120 feet ; the general head branched 
off at 150 feet; the elevation of the tree, traceable by the branches 
on the ground, was 213 feet. We ascended this tree on an inclined 
plane, formed by one of its limbs, and walked four abreast with ease 
