37 
Cypress Fines and our Poets. 
Let me briefly touch upon our Australian poets and Cypress Pines, which do 
not, however, appear to have much stirred the poetic fire. I only give four 
quotations,—two referring to the hills of the Southern table-land and two to the 
Western Plains, celebrated for their pines, the home of the pine-scrubs and of those 
forests of pines which will be more valued as they become scarcer. 
Charles Harpur speaks of— 
“With leafy breath of piny mountains.” 
A. B. Patterson, in his “ Snowy Biver,” has — 
“ And down by Kosciusko, where the pine-clad ridges raise 
Their torn and rugged battlements on high.” 
The closeness and regularity of growth of many of the western pines is 
alluded to by T. H. Ord— 
“ They chased him thro’ timber, to where the tall pines 
Rose out of the sandhills, set close as a furze.” 
The sweet aroma of a Cypress Pine forest reminds one of the perfume of the 
pine forests of Europe. 
T. E. Spencer, in “ O’Toole and M‘Sharry,” sings— 
“ In the valley of the Lachlan, where the perfume from the pines 
Fills the glowing summer air like incense spreading.” 
There is nothing more delightful in the approach, on a winter evening, to a 
township where Cypress Pine is used as a fuel. Its delicious perfume is borne on 
the air for miles, and is often the first intimation that the weary traveller experiences 
that he is approaching a human habitation, and that his long journey is drawing to 
a close. 
KEY TO THE SPECIES OF CYPRESS PINE ( CALLITRIS ). 
Fruit-cones large, angular, pointed, the junction of the valves prominent, the leaves 
(branchlets) markedly dimorphic ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Maclcayana. 
Fruit-cones globular, strictly valvate, the junction of the valves usually neither prominent 
nor furrowed.* Exterior not smooth ; columella pyramidal. 
Fruit-cone warted all over ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... verrucosa. 
Cone valves alternately smaller, foliage glaucous, and with comparatively thin 
... robusta. 
... columellaris. 
... Muelleri. 
... propinqua. 
... calcarata. 
... cuprcssiformis. 
pedicels (interior species) 
Foliage bright green (coast species) 
Fruit-cones greyish-brown, nearly smooth. 
Cones globular. 
Columella pyramidal. 
Branchlets coarse (coast and mountain species) 
Branchlets rather slender, cones sparingly warted... 
Columellas several (interior species) 
Cones rhombohedral, rather small, clustered on short branches 
c 
Specimens of Murray Pine (robusta) from Mildura, Victoria, are markedly furrowed. 
