CRETACEOUS PERIOD 
Adorn the scene ; and glossy chestnut trees 405 
Extend their arms, oft bent before the breeze ; 
And straggling hazels, with but little grace, 
Are elbowing their way from place to place. 
Here too are maples, limes, and sycamores, 
And sweet-gums with their yellow balsam stores. 410 
And other growths from unknown lands appear ; 
High scented cinnamons perfume the air, 
And honeyed banksias their clustered flowers bear. 
Holly and buckthorn here their way have found, 
Persimmons, yellow flowered, bloom around. 415 
Air-cleansing eucalypti hither stray, 
And vine-like growths their juicy fruits display. 
Thus move to wider life the nobler plants, 
As sturdy bands of pushing emigrants. 
And bring they not gay flowers to deck a scene, 420 
Where meagre bloom but hitherto had been ? 
And bring they not sweet scents about a world, 
That rank and marshy odours long had held ? 
Indeed it is as if a dreary land 
Had transformed been by some magician's wand. 425 
Huge dinosaurs stalk biped on the plains 
Like walking obelisks ; nor do their brains 
Betoken that they greater wit command 
Than do their brethren on Europa's land. 
93 
