INU 
& THE GEELONG NATURALIST. 
Upon the banks of the northern and western rivers, sometimes 
far south of the tropie of Capricorn, we find truly tropical vege- 
tation. Here jungles grow which cannot be traversed, except with 
the use of the axe; where mighty cedars are mingled with the 
Bombax, the figs and bamboos of the east. Creeping plants grow 
and bind the dense foliage in heavy clustering masses. Here 
flourishes the gaint nettle which paralyses the traveller’s horse ; 
whilst in the rank steaming swamps grow many other strange and. 
interesting plants. The scene is Indian in its type and Brazilian 
in its beauty. 
Then if we traverse these jungles, cross the ranges, and make 
our way towards the interior, we find a totally different type of 
forest; first we find the inland slopes thickly timbered, but as we 
journey on the forest gradually becomes more open, until the land 
stretches in undulating waves of park-like country, savannahs and 
rolling ridges of grassy uplands, relieved here and there by rich 
thickets of either some dwarf Eucalypti or graceful Acacias, the 
whole forming a beautiful picture, which however lacks one thing 
to make it perfect, and that is—water. If we still advance towards. 
the interior, we find that the vegetation becomes poorer and poorer, 
until it is only confined to a narrow fringe of stunted Acacias and 
Bauhinias along the banks of some dried-up creek. The farther 
inland we go the drier the climate and the poorer the vegetable 
production becomes. If we return, however, to the sea-board, and 
travel south, towards Sydney, another feature is met with. Here 
the climate has had less effect on the natural sterility of the soil. 
The sandstone country will always be more or less barren, but here 
it is relieved’ by spots of exceptional beauty. In the deep, dark, 
sheltered nooks stretching towards the sea, here flourish many 
varieties of gaudy flowers and beautiful ferns. Perhaps the most 
striking feature of this country is the queer, flat shape of the 
summits of the hills, upon which nothing grows except a few shrubs 
of Banksias and Hakeas. They are dry, dark, and stunted, with 
nothing fresh or inviting about them. Fortunately, however, the 
want of vegetation is relieved by the formation of the country, for 
the high plateaux fall in abrupt cliffs, clothed here and there in the 
hollows with pretty pieces of wood, running right down into basins 
of pure placid water. It is such scenes as this that give such 
exquisite pieces of wood and water scenery to Sydney Harbour. 
Let us now proceed inland to the slopes of the Blue Mountains, 
and here in places we find beautiful little patches of forest. But 
it is not until we have travelled some hundreds of miles southward 
that we really find true Australian forests in all their strangeness 
and grandeur. Here among the ranges which drain the sea-clouds 
of their life-giving rains giant Eucalypti tower to the height of 400 
feet, challenging California in height if not in girth. In fact, it is 
now well known that some of the gums growing among the 
sheltered glens of Gippsland are larger than any known trees in the 
world. Nor do these forests of Gippsland leave a bare surface in 
their shade, but shelter numbers of mimosas and beautiful ferns, 
