Travel Tales 
of a PI ant Coll ector 
E. H. WILSON 
Assistant Director of the Arnold Arboretum 
Author of “Romance of Our Trees,” “Aristocrats of the Garden,” “A Naturalist in Western China,” 
and other works 
IV. MORE ABOUT THE PLANTS OF AUSTRALIA 
Their Great Variety and Their Value to California and Other Sunny Lands 
Editors’ Note: By his unparalleled contribution to Occidental gardens of more than 2,000 new trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants brought back from a 
fourteen-year search in the Far East, Mr. Wilson has won the permanent gratitude of gardeners everywhere. Many of his introductions are already established 
in popular favor, and nearly 200 have received the authoritative stamp of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Merit. 
The exclusive privilege of publishing these accounts of “Chinese Wilson’s” recent plant explorations through Africa, Asia, and Australia, in the footsteps of the 
older plant collectors, has been accorded The Garden Magazine. 
Copyright, D. P. & Co., 1923 
BELONGING to the same family as the Acacias, previ¬ 
ously described, but to another section is the Batswing 
Coral ( Erythrina vespertilio). This tree is a gorgeous 
sight when in blossom with its scarlet flowers in masses 
on the leafless branches. The leaves are remarkable in form 
being oddly cuneate in shape and suggestive of a bat’s wing, 
as its common name would lead one to suppose. 
Different plants designated Christmas-trees or bushes occur 
in several states and they are all handsome when in flower 
which happens around Christmas-time. In New South Wales 
it is Ceratopetalum gummiferum, a small tree with tri-foliolate 
leaves and terminal cymose clusters of blooms. Each flower 
has notched petals and four persistent calyx-lobes which enlarge 
and become red-colored after the petals and stamens have fallen. 
Allied to this Christmas-tree is the lovely Eucryphia Billardieri, 
the Pink Wood of Tasmania, a bush or tree of moderate size with 
glistening resinous winter-buds, opposite leaves, pale on the 
underside and snow-white flowers each an inch across. There 
are other species of Eucryphia in Tasmania and Queensland, 
otherwise the genus is South American. Another link between 
Eastern Australia and South America, and this with species 
in Eastern Australia and New Zealand, is found in the 
genus Nothofagus of which there are several species. These 
are mainly trees with numerous, slender branchlets and small 
myrtle-like leaves. They often grow gregariously and from 
their manner of branching singularly resemble the Hemlock 
(Tsuga canadensis). One species (N. Gunnii) is deciduous and 
has the distinction of being the only deciduous tree in Tasmania. 
There are no Willows, Poplars, Birches, Aiders, Elms, Walnuts 
or Hickories in Australia and the great family to which belong 
our Oaks, Chestnuts, and Beeches, so all-important a feature 
of the northern forests, is represented solely by Nothofagus 
variously known as Myrtle, Birch, and Southern Beech. 
Two members of the large and widely dispersed Fig family 
that must not be omitted in any sketch of the tree-flora of 
Eastern Australia are Ficus macrophylla and F. rubiginosa. 
They are widely branching umbrageous trees with large trunks 
and surface spreading roots. The first-named is known as the 
Moreton Bay Fig, from the place of its discovery, and with its 
large leaves is reminiscent of the Rubber-tree of the florist; the 
other is indigenous round Sydney and has small, neat, lustrous 
leaves and is an excellent subject for planting where soil thinly 
covers hard rock. Both are fine avenue trees but the Austral¬ 
ians think little of them. 
One of the oddities of the Australian tree-world is the genus 
Exocarpus, the Native Cherries, which have the “stone out¬ 
side the fruit.” The best known is E. cupressiformis, a leafless 
plant with bright green, slender branches densely arranged 
and in appearance suggestive of a Cypress. The “stone” 
is really the fruit which is seated on a red, fleshy receptacle. 
This tree is a root-parasite belonging to the Sandal-wood family 
and not very far removed from our Mistletoe. It is widely 
dispersed in the scrub of eastern Australia. 
South of the tropic of Capricorn Palms are poorly represented 
in Australia and not at all in Tasmania. In the rain-forests 
the Bangalow ( Archontophoenix Cunninghamiana) , with slender 
stems 30 to 50 feet tall and graceful crown of pinnate leaves, 
and the Fan-leaf Cabbage Palm ( Livistona australis) are abund¬ 
ant. This Cabbage Palm is found well south into Victoria and 
is very handsome with its polished dark green leaves and pet¬ 
ioles armed with brown hooks. Another species (L. Mariae) is 
the only species of Palm in Central Australia and is confined to 
a very limited area on the Macdonnell Range. A Ratan 
(Calamus Muelleri) and a Walkingstick Palm ( Linospadix 
monostachyus) grow also in the rain-forests; and indigenous 
on Lord Howe’s Island are Kentia Fosteriana and K. Belmore- 
ana, now indispensable to our florists, and also the lesser-known 
K. canterbury ana. 
Conifers and the Aristocratic Cycas 
N CONIFERS Eastern Australia is much richer than the 
western part of the continent, yet, except Callitris in the 
drier interior regions they are nowhere a dominant feature of 
the forests. There are quite a number of species of Callitris, and 
inland where the rainfall is sparse, wide tracts are covered with 
the white and black Cypress Pines (C. robusta and C. calcarata ) 
respectively. On the coast grow C. arenosa and C. rhomboidea; 
of these the first-named is a handsome tree with a blackish green, 
billowy crown and a rugged trunk. The Queensland Kauri 
(Agathis robusta ) just comes within our limits and is a noble 
tree with a column-like bole, clothed with scaly bark, a shapely 
crown and leathery dark green, broad oblong lance-shaped 
leaves. The remarkable Bunya-Bunya ( Araucaria Bidwillii) 
is a close relative of the Monkey-Puzzle of gardeners (A. im- 
bricata ) which is native of Chili. The Bunya-Bunya up to 
middle age is a striking tree with a perfect dome-shaped crown, 
but afterwards it becomes scrawny and ugly. The cone, as 
large as a child’s head, falls and disintegrates when ripe. Its 
large seed is good eating and is much sought after by the Blacks 
and by the kangaroos. On the volcanic Norfolk Island, fring¬ 
ing the ocean and nowhere else, grows the familiar Araucaria 
excelsa and on the mainland the related A. Cunninghamii which 
has less regularly arranged branches and branchlets. The wood 
of these Araucarias and of the Kauri is very valuable timber and 
the trees are being rapidly felled. 
None of our northern genera of conifers grow wild in Australia 
and the great family Pinaceae is represented by the genus Ath- 
rotaxis of which there are three species all confined to Tasmania. 
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