TREATMENT OF AUSTRALIAN PLANTS 
IN GARDENS 
It is well known that most of the indigenous trees, shrubs, climbers, 
and herbaceous plants, &c., are as easily cultivated in gardens and 
plantations as those which have been introduced from abroad. Aus¬ 
tralian plants, as a rule, grow as quickly as the imported, withstand 
drought and exposure better, and soon adapt themselves to different 
climates and soils. Plants from the North, East, and West of the 
continent will, with few exceptions, thrive in the South, and vice versa, 
if suitable situations are chosen for them. Many of the species are 
common to all the States. Taken as a whole, no vegetation on the 
face of the earth, on an equal extent of surface, is so varied and beau¬ 
tiful as that of Australia. Well indeed may seeds of Australian Flora 
be so greatly in demand of late years by arboriculturalists and horti- 
culturalists in Europe and America 
The great evergreen timber trees, the beautiful as well as useful 
close-grained hard and soft fancy woods of the inland forests and coastal 
regions, the gorgeous flowering trees and large shrubs, noble palms, 
&c., spread over the Brush lands or Scrublands of New South Wales and 
Queensland, to say nothing of the delightful Flora of Western Aus¬ 
tralia or of South Australia, are unsurpassed anywhere, and broad 
belts of magnificent vegetation extend along the Eastern coast regions 
for at least two thousand miles! 
Think, also, of the hundreds of exquisite dwarf shrubs, of neat 
habit, bearing blossoms of every desirable colour—bright scarlet, deep 
crimson, carmine, orange, yellow, violet, blue, pink, or combinations of 
all, or grades of each, down to the most delicate neutral tints—clothing 
hill and dale and plain, within easy distance of our cities! 
Yet Australians, for the most part, so it seems, scarcely pause to 
admire their own floral treasures, because they are plentiful. A time 
may come when many of our loveliest shrubs will he uncommon, and 
perhaps extinct, unless efforts are made to preserve them from 
destruction. 
Many people complain that our native shrubs are difficult to culti¬ 
vate in gardens, but, if so, may this not he principally due to want of 
a little knowledge how to treat them? The shrub it is desired to 
transplant is often badly used, in the beginning, by being pulled out of 
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