NEW HOLLAND PLANTS. 
217 
NEW HOLLAND PLANTS. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE GENERA CHOROZEMA AND 
GOMPHOLOBIUM. 
By the general term we use for the heading of this paper, 
gardeners designate an extensive and very ornamental group of 
plants, which constitute an important section of the vegetation 
that in our climate requires to be cultivated in the greenhouse; 
under the same term, however, it is common to include not only 
the plants of New Holland, but also those of Australasia gene¬ 
rally ; and when the fine climate and character of that quarter 
of the world is thought of, it is by no means surprising they should 
form so considerable a portion of our choicest floral treasures. 
The group is numerically large, and, as may be supposed, contains 
subjects varying from each other in nearly every character; the 
entire habit, and the form and colour of the several parts of each 
are changed in numberless variations; the strongest contrasts 
may be found among them, which are again merged by the many 
and almost imperceptible gradations that find a place between ; 
every transition is present, from the lofty Dacrydium Mai, by 
whose side our forest trees would appear mere pigmies, to the 
humblest form that arborescent vegetation can assume : yet in 
two respects they are identical, they are all evergreen, and may 
be all cultivated by the same management. 
In their native positions most of these plants are found more 
often in isolated patches than in any great quantity together; 
large tracts of country being thinly scattered over with clumps 
of under shrubs, and remarkably destitute of tall trees, a circum¬ 
stance which also marks the vegetation of the Cape of Good Hope, 
whence are obtained another highly ornamental class of plants, 
the Heaths; and in an artificial position both classes exhibit the 
same love of bright, clear light and fresh, moving air, that a 
knowledge of their habitats would lead us to suppose necessary, 
and hence we may gain a correct idea of the leading feature in 
the management; they are so strictly “ children of the free air,” 
as to refuse existence in an impure atmosphere, and consequently 
on the manner in which they are supplied in this respect depends 
much of the success attending their culture. 
ii. 
19 
