CHAPTER VI.

THE FLORA OF THE AUSTRALIAN PLAINS.

The Deserts of the Australian interior have been laboriously traversed, not, as we have seen, without much suffering, and even sacrifice, by a handful of intrepid travellers, who have proposed to themselves simply the solution of certain geographical problems. It will therefore be understood that we owe to them only a few incidental notices of their botanical features. For an accurate examination of these the pioneers of commerce have neither the means, the opportunities, nor the requisite scientific knowledge. As far as its flora is concerned, the Australian interior is wholly "virgin soil," a new botanical world, perhaps, awaiting the advent of a Columbus. Only the littoral districts have been satisfactorily explored; and here, in the south, we meet with the names of Labillardière, Robert Brown, Gaudichaud, D'Urville, Sieber, Lesson, Cunningham, and other eminent botanists. To these celebrated names we must also add those of Dr. Mueller, Director of the Botanical Gardens at Melbourne, Sir William Hooker, and Mr. Bentham. Their united labours have provided the public with a vast amount of curious and authentic information, and have established the fact that the botany of New Holland, like its zoology, has a physiognomy peculiarly its own, and that many, nay, most of its vegetable species, are not less characteristic than its strange and astonishing animal types. One is almost tempted to adopt in sober earnest what Sydney Smith said in humorous exaggeration, that, "in this remote part of the earth, Nature (having made horses, oxen, ducks, geese, oaks, elms, and all regular and useful productions for the rest of the world) seems determined to have a bit of play, and to amuse herself as she pleases."[117] Undoubtedly she has indulged in the most wayward and eccentric forms. If there exist any relations between the vegetation of Australia and that of any other part of the globe, it is certainly with the districts of Southern Africa which lie near the Cape of Good Hope that Australia exhibits the greatest affinity. It would seem as if these two continents in some remote age had not been separated, as they now are, by "leagues of salt water," but that their vegetable species had been able to propagate themselves freely from the one to the other.

According to Richard, the approximative number of species distinguished by botanists amounts to about five thousand; but so many discoveries have been made of later years, that we may raise the estimate to seven thousand. While the Australian plants are distributed among numerous families, each of the latter comprises but a very limited number of individuals. The predominant plants belong, in the main, to these families or orders:--Leguminosæ, Compositæ, Myrtaceæ, Gramineæ, Cyperaceæ, Filices, Proteaceæ, Epacridæ, Orchidaceæ, in a proportion which varies, moreover, according to the various districts explored.

The fertility of the soil, and the climatic conditions of the southern shores of the Australian continent, are highly favourable to the introduction of new species. Our English settlers have availed themselves to the utmost of this circumstance, and have cultivated on a large scale all the most useful fruit trees and vegetables of Europe, and others imported from tropical climes; so that mingled in the same prolific gardens may be seen the fig-tree and the banana, the guava, the orange-tree, the olive, and the apple--cabbages, potatoes, turnips, peas. Even the vine has been successfully naturalized, and its manufactured products are not inferior in excellence to the famous Rhenish wines.

In indicating the most curious indigenous plants of New Holland, we shall more particularly confine ourselves to those of Victoria, one of the best known districts, and perhaps also one of the most extensive, most diversified, and most picturesque. The plains are, in general, sufficiently grassy and fertile, especially in those parts which border on the brooks and rivers. The plants most extensively distributed belong to the Gramineæ and Cyperaceæ; we find, among the former, the _Pennisetum fasciculare_, a great number of Poaceæ, and the _Arundo conspicua_; in foliage and general appearance the latter presents some striking analogies with the Pampas Grass; among the Poaceæ predominates the _Cyperus vaginatus_, a common object on the banks of the river Murray in those parts which are subject to frequent inundations. A strong tenacious netting is made from the fibres of its leaves. To these herbs we have to add some flowering plants, such as the star-like _Lobelias_; numerous species of mint (as _Mentha Australis_, _M. satureioides_, _M. grandiflora_, and _M. gracilis_), from which an essential oil is extracted for use in the manufacture of perfumes; the _Sida pulchella_ and _Lavatera plebeia_, of which stout fibre or solid thread is made, the fibres of Australian flax (_Linum marginale_) being adapted to the same purpose. The _Restias_, a curious rush-like order of endogens, also inhabit these moist places: as do the Kingias, very common grasses; the _Astelia Banksii_, a species of Liliaceæ, with grass-formed leaves and a strong tenacious stem; and the _Xerotes longifolia_. The Nardoo (_Narsilia macropus_, or, as it is sometimes called, _N. salvatrix_), whose spores and spore-cases are pounded by the native Australians and made into bread or porridge, is a kind of cryptogamous plant, with leaves formed of four folioles, like those of a truffle. It abounds in the low grounds and inundated districts, especially on the banks of the Murray. Finally, the Stag-horn (_Acrostichon grande_), a gigantic mushroom, clings to the branches of the great trees.

Small bushy clumps are scattered over the plains, and flourish with peculiar vigour along the water-courses. They consist of various shrubs. The traveller will not fail to notice a whole series of Leguminosæ--_Chlorozoma_, _Pultenæa_, _Viminaria_, _Mirbelia_, _Podolobium_ (all are shrubs of exceeding elegance, and now form the rare ornaments of our English gardens); of Epacridæ--_Epacris stiphelia_, _E. leucophogon_, and others, which have also been imported into our home-parterres; a great number of Euribias, a genus of subfrutescent Compositæ, of which a few are rendered interesting by their heathlike foliage; the _Pimelea axiflora_, whose supple and tenacious bark is fashioned into bands and straps; the _Myrsine variabilis_, with its woody stems and drupaceous fruit; the _Aralia crassifolia_, a singular shrub, with long, narrow, and very rigid leaves; the _Callistemon salignum_ (vulgarly called "stonewood"), employed for xylographic purposes; the _Casuarina equisetifolia_,[118] or "Swamp Oak"--also called "Cassowary Tree"--a lofty tree, with very durable wood, long, slender, drooping, emerald-green branches, and conical fruit, inclosing small winged nuts; various species of Melaleuca, yielding the green aromatic oil called cajaputi or cajeput oil, valuable as a stimulant or antispasmodic; finally, some Cordylines, or Tis, plants of the natural order Liliaceæ, and nearly allied to the Dragon's Blood Tree, attaining a height of ten to fifteen feet, with a berry-like fruit, and lanceolate leaves of a reddish hue, which afford a nutriment for cattle, thatch for houses, and whose fibres are frequently made into cloth. The root, when baked, is much used as an article of food, and the fermented juice yields an intoxicating beverage.

The dry, rocky, arid, and sandy districts, which may be compared to the Landes of Brittany, are clothed with a peculiar vegetation. The strangest plant, which is also the most widely distributed, is undoubtedly the _Xanthorrhoea arborea_,[119] forming a conspicuous feature in the dreary landscape, and when stripped of its leaves resembling a black man holding a spear. The leaves afford good fodder for cattle, while the natives eat the soft white centre of the top of the stem. They yield two kinds of fragrant resin--one of a yellow colour, balsamic and inodorous, called Botany Bay; and the other red, called Black Boy Gum. The tree--which the settlers have christened "Black Boy" and "Grass Gum"--has a thick trunk, encrusted in a thick coating of the persistent basis of old leaves, glued together by the yellow or red resin with which the plant abounds, and usually burned and blackened outside by bush-fires. The leaves are long, wiry, and grass-like, and are borne in a dense tuft at the top of the stem, hanging gracefully all around it. Their long flower-stalks aspire from its centre, sometimes growing as high as fifteen or twenty feet, and carrying aloft a thick cylindrical flower spike.

Among the lowlier plants are found a few Hectias, such as the _Hectia Pitcairniæfolia_, one of the Bromelias, very curious from its mode of vegetation; and the _Stipa crinita_, a very common grass. The leaves of the latter have been manufactured into paper of tolerable consistency.

The sandy and colder tracts are the habitat of the annual or perennial Compositæ, distinguished by their smooth and shining flowers. On the other hand, the dry rocky surfaces are besprinkled with inconsiderable woods, or rather thickets, formed in part of the _Santalum acuminatum_, whose nutritious fruit are called "peaches" by the colonists; the _Santalum persicarium_, or sandal wood; several _Nitrarias_,[120] with edible fruits; a great number of Acacias, notably the _Acacia verticillata_, _A. sophora_, and _A. doratoxylon_, whose very hard wood is employed in the fabrication of javelins; a considerable series of Proteaceæ, particularly the _Banksia Australis_, _B. serrata_, and _B. integrifolia_, so characteristic in aspect and foliage; and a few _Eucalypti_,[121] or "Gum Trees," of small stature--among others, the "Traveller's Tree," or _Eucalyptus oleosa_.[122] Its roots extend horizontally, and retain a quantity of water sufficient to quench the wayfarer's thirst in the hour of need. All the Eucalypti are curious trees, with entire and leathery leaves, affording an unusual amount of aromatic oil. Many of the species abound in resinous secretions; some attain a great size, with trunks of from 8 to 16 feet in diameter, and 150 or 160 in length. The _Eucalyptus resinifera_--"Red Gum" or "Iron Bark Tree"--reaches to an elevation of 150 to 200 feet. When wounded, a red juice flows from it very freely, hardening into irregular, inodorous, and transparent masses in the air, and furnishing as much as sixty gallons from a single tree.

Finally, I may refer to the _Dryandra_, whose foliage is very graceful, and its conformation very varied. Sometimes it is found as a bush, three to seven feet high; and sometimes, as in the _Dryandra repens_, creeping along the ground.

On the more temperate heights the traveller encounters some plants of a fantastic character: as, for instance, the _Doryanthes excelsa_, with its upright gigantic leaves, more than 6 feet long, and from 2½ to 3½ inches broad; from their centre rises a strong stalk, 15 or 18 feet high, terminated by a compact and voluminous cluster of great deep-red flowers. There, too, are found the magnificent arborescent ferns, _Alsophila Australis_ and _Dicksonia Antarctica_. The trunk of the former aspires to a stature of 25 to 90 feet; that of the second, to 12 to 28 feet; and in both the stems are terminated by a cluster of immense flowers, which give to these plants a quite distinctive character.

Nor must we quit the Australian Flora and its marvels without alluding to the _Corypha Australis_, which begins to make its appearance at the mouth of the Snowy River. It is a gigantic palm, growing solitarily, or in thin groups, in low, cool, and even moist places. Its trunk probably attains to 140 feet in height; and the top of its stem is crowned by a gorgeous crest of fan-shaped leaves, which are employed in the manufacture of straw hats.