THE GARDEN I NO WORLD. 
45 
he 0[ardening\^>rld. 
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EDITORIAL NOTES. 
lora of Hew South Wales. 
According to the Year Book of New South 
Tales, it is evident that California has not 
ot all the big trees. Some of the Eucalypti 
attain to heights that almost rival the “ big 
trees.” Some of them reach to a height of 
over 300 ft. with a girth of 12 ft. to 20 ft. 
Tlie.se trees and their small congeners con¬ 
stitute the principal vegetation in certain 
parts of Australia. Altogether 3,500 spe¬ 
cies of flowering plants and Ferns are known 
to inhabit New South Wales, while the whole 
of Australia includes over 9,000 species as 
far as is at present known to scientific men. 
Dealing with a smaller area, however, it be¬ 
comes evident that the flora is very rich 
in species. The county of Cumberland 
alone contains over 1,20(3 species of native 
plants, while others may yet be discovered. 
The whole of Britain would not furnish many 
more hundreds to this list. Cultivators 
will be more pleased to learn that all kinds 
of British fruit trees and flowering shrubs 
thrive in New South Wales if suitable locali¬ 
ties are selected. The Orange and Vine at¬ 
tain a luxuriance not surpassed in Southern 
Europe. Tree Ferns and other species are 
found in enormous numbers in suitable lo¬ 
calities. Large numbers of the native 
trees are suitable for timber, while others 
supply human food, forage, gums, resins, 
essential oils, perfumes, dyes, tans, fibres, 
etc. 
-—o— 
The Changeable Flora. 
Those who study the flora of any particu¬ 
lar neighbourhood will discover that it is 
liable to vary from year to year, or from 
time to time. This fact will be seen more 
immediately in annual species which may 
shift their ground every year. Herbaceous 
perennials, shrubs, and trees take longer 
time to disappear from any given locality, 
but if left to their own resources they ulti¬ 
mately vary in their abundance or disappear 
from the neighbourhood where previously 
plentiful. The American Botanist ” com¬ 
pares this changing flora to the shifting char¬ 
acter of the population of large cities. The 
same number of individuals may continue to 
inhabit the place, but they are not 
identical with those who inhabited 
the same even in the previous year, nor is it 
likely that all will continue to inhabit the 
same places in years to come. In a state of 
nature plants undergo similar changes in their 
habitats owing to the agencies at work. For 
instance, ponds and lakes are liable to be 
dried up, and the places of aquatic plants 
down by streams and rivers, while, on the 
other hand, swamps and marshy places get 
dried up, and the places of acquatic plants 
have to be taken by those that delight in 
drier conditions. The everlasting hills them¬ 
selves are a mere sentiment when the matter 
is properly looked into, as they are con¬ 
tinually being cut down into ravines or 
gradually levelled down, and carried away 
to the sea, there in future time to form other 
and new land. These agencies are by no 
means so rapid as the changes brought about 
amongst plant life by man himself, who cuts 
down forests, drains land, dries up streams, 
and destroys wild plants wholesale by agri¬ 
cultural and horticultural operations, so that 
a new series of wild plants even is introduced 
to take the place of those which grew under 
different conditions. Although the gardener 
or farmer may continue to sow one plant, 
some wildings will not only grow but increase 
as a result of these operations unless labour 
is expended to keep them in check. On the 
face of the country the operations of man 
have been immense, at least in all populous 
countries, so that changes in the flora have 
been more rapidly and extensively brought 
about than bj r the forces of nature. In many 
cases the plants introduced to land under 
cultivation are exotics, and it may be in some 
cases they are worse weeds than those which 
the operations of cultivation displanted. 
A Cut-Leaved Mustard. 
Under the name of Mustard laeiniated- 
leaved, a new variety of Chinese Mustard 
has been introduced by Messrs. Yilmorin- 
Andrieux and Co., of Paris. An illustra¬ 
tion of it is given, showing the leaves to be 
very much cut, almost resembling Endive. 
Although named Mustard, it seems to be a 
variety of what is sometimes named the 
Chinese Cabbage, and if so, it is very closely 
akin to our Turnip, being classed by 
botanists as a variety of it under the name 
of Brassica campestris chinensis. In any 
case, within certain limits, this is a very 
variable plant and certainly not at all like 
our Cabbage, though very distinct also from 
the Turnip. These differences relate more 
to the leaves than to the fruit, which in the 
Brassicas are the chief guide to the differ¬ 
ences of plants in that order, which cannot 
be well determined by their leaves owing to 
their variability, as one can see by reference 
to the wild Cabbage, or to the Turnip, which 
give rise to so much variation under 
cultivation. This cut-leaved Chinese Mus¬ 
tard, of recent introduction, is distinct from 
the curled-leaved Mustard by having leaves 
cut as stated with a red border to the leaves, 
which gives them an ornamental appear¬ 
ance. As a vegetable it is of good flavour, 
and requires to be boiled and used much 
in the same way as Spinach. Being raised 
from seeds its cultivation offers no special 
difficulty. In France it would seem that it 
is sown about the end of summer, when 
vegetables are getting less plentiful, and 
comes into use six weeks after it has been 
sown. After this time it may be had in 
succession until the plants are cut down by 
frost. Besides the use in this way, the 
leaves may also be used for garnishing, and 
are very effective. We presume that in this 
countrv, except in very dry seasons, it could 
be had in use from very early in the season 
till late in autumn by repeated sowings, in 
the same way as Lettuce, Mustard or Cress. 
