Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

AUSTE.ILDIN FLORA. 873perhaps tlie single exception of the iceUingtonia of California and Oregon.But thisprerogative is by others assigned to the Rcgnans variety of eucalyptus amygdalina,which attains its greatest size on the mountain slopes of eastern Victoria, wheretrunks have been measured no less than 480 feet long.* Gums 420 feet high areby no means rare in the gorges of Victoria and Tasmania ; but farther northscarcely any are met exceeding 200 feet. Those growing on the Tasmanianuplands shoot straight up like bamboos, without any branches below a height of50 or 60 feet. When the wind whistles through the ravines, the strips of barkhanging from these tall stems clash together with a weird, creaking sound as ofmoaning spirits. Growing only on the slopes of the hills, the giant gum-trees arenot seen to full advantage from a distance.In Australia there are scarcely any dense forests with a tangled growth ofinterwoven branches and creepers, as in most tropical regions ; nor are there manywoodlands with close-set stems, as in the pine and fir plantations of north Europe.As a rule, the trees lie wide apart, like those of the English parks, and beneaththeir shade stretches the grassy sward, where formerly grazed herds of kangaroos,now mostly replaced by flocks of sheep. Till recently these open wooded tractscovered the greater part of the western slope of the New South "Wales and Queenslanduplands ; but farther west, towards the centre of the continent, they give placeto scrub, usually consisting ofthorny plants, such as acacias, dwarf eucalj'ptus orspinifex {triodia irritans), growing together in thickets. North of the 28° southlatitude, where this scrub prevails, men and animals often find it impossible tomake way, and many travellers, unable to force a path through the spinifex, havebeen fain to change their route or retrace their steps.The dense growths of eucalyptus cUimosa, the mallie of the natives, are also agreat obstacle to explorers, though they may still be traversed. They have theappearance of tall bulrushes, growing to a height of 10 or 12 feet before throwing offany branches, and completely covering the ground with a uniform sea of verdure,in which the wayfarer disappears, while laboriously striving to force a passage.The cuttings made for highways across these mallie thickets are as sharp andclearly defined as those of roads flunked by walls.Of the scrubby tracts the mosteasily penetrated are those composed of melakuca, a shrub which resembles themyrtle, and which grows in clusters with free intervening spaces.The natives ofthe desert regions are acquainted with a plant, the pitchouri {duboisia liopu-oodii),whose leaves reduced to powder sustain them on long journeys, and keep oil thepangs of hunger. When fighting they continually chew these leaves, whichappear to have the effect of exciting their warlike spirit to a pitch of frenzy.A beginning has long been made in the process of disafforesting Australia.About the year 1860 some stockbreeders entertained the idea of extending theirgrazing grounds by clearing away the forest growths that clothed the slopes of thehiUs.The process of felling the eucalyptus and other large trees would have beentoo slow and two expensive ; hence the squatters had recourse to the more expeditiousplan of barking the stems. This practice spread rapidly, and by 1880 at• George Sutherland, amongst others, declares this to be " imdoubtedly the largest tree in the world."