Now let us turn for a moment from the animal to the plant life of Australia. In the tropical parts of Queensland there are many plants which belong to the Malayan region as a whole; this we might expect. We may see palms growing even at Brisbane; while 23 further north they form a dense forest, thoroughly tropical in appearance, with its creepers and undergrowth, as we see in these two pictures. But further south we meet more species 24 peculiar to Australia, in the vegetable no less than in the 25 animal world. The typical Australian plants are those specially adapted to resist hot sunshine with drought, and often sudden changes of temperature. All over the continent the gum trees 26 give a special mark to the landscape of the forest. The leaves hang vertically, so as not to give a large exposure of surface to the hot sun, and are collected in dense clusters for the same purpose of protection; so that we miss much of the spreading shade of our English trees. The leaves, too, are alike on both sides, and the colour is more uniform than in our own trees, nor do they change colour and fall in autumn, but decay gradually on the stalk. The bark of many of the gums hangs in strips, thus spoiling the appearance of the huge trunk, for huge it is, rising to four hundred feet in some species. Owing to the character of the foliage the forests are more open than our own, except in the wetter parts where there is a dense undergrowth of fern and creeper. These districts are always near the coast. As we travel away from the coast the forest thins out, except along the watercourses, and becomes smaller and more stunted. In place of trees with leaves we find thorny scrub of various kinds, such as 27 the mulga, whose leaves are replaced by woody spikes still more resistant to drought. Finally we reach the salt-bush and spinifex 28 and wiry grasses of the desert interior. Often there is little 29 but bare rock as in the pictures before us. The watercourses 30 themselves may dry up in the hot season, leaving a desolate 31 expanse of sand and stones, but the line of trees still marks the presence of moisture below. 32 The huge gum trees are, as a rule, the main feature in the forest landscape, but this is varied by curiosities like the grass tree and the bottle tree; while in the moister regions, as in the forests of Gippsland, we find beautiful tree ferns of every 33 kind. Here are specimens of grass trees and gums. Everywhere 34 we find the acacia and the wattle with its sweet scent, the 35 banksia shooting up into great trees, and the beautiful waratah; everywhere, too, where the rainfall is sufficient, flowers of the same order as those with which we are familiar in Europe grow in great profusion.