The plant and animal life of Australia forms one of its most remarkable features. Both plants and animals are of the kind that lived many ages ago. One of the curiosities of forest life is the "gum," or eucalyptus, a belt of which almost surrounds the continent. In its native home the blue gum is a most beautiful tree that sometimes grows to a height of three hundred feet. When the tree begins its growth the stem is nearly square in shape and the leaves are almost circular. After a short time, however, the branches and trunk become circular and the leaves long and lance-shaped. They hang with their edges instead of their flat surfaces to the light, which also is true of many other Australian trees. The eucalyptus sheds--not its leaves every year, but its bark instead. Many plants which in other continents are small shrubs in Australia are trees. The tulip, the fern, the honeysuckle, and the lily are examples. They all grow in tree form and are of considerable size. There is no turf grass except that which is cultivated. The wild grasses are of the "bunch" or clump species, and some of these have blades so sharp that they cut cruelly. One species, the porcupine grass, bears a name that does not belie its character. Much of the coast lands are covered with a growth of thorny "scrub" that has made cultivation both difficult and costly. The interior is the "bush" region. The animal life of the continent is even more singular than the plant life. Most of the animals resemble the opossum of North American fauna in one respect, the mother carries her young in a pouch or fold of the skin under her body. But the opossum itself is not confined to North America alone; there are several species in Australia and Tasmania. The kangaroos are among the most remarkable animals, not only because of the great length and strength of their hind legs, but also because of the variety in the sizes of the different species. Some of the smaller species are no larger than a small rat; the large-sized species are six feet tall when sitting on their haunches. There are no monkeys and no animals that chew the cud, but there is a wonderful variety of birds. Among them is the emeu, a kind of ostrich that practically is wingless. Another, the platypus, or duck-bill, has the bill and webbed feet of a duck and the body and tail of a beaver. Stranger still, the female duck-bill lays eggs, but nurses her young after the eggs are hatched! The duck-bill carries a hinged spur on the hind legs, which also is a sting that injects a violent poison into whatever it strikes. Ordinarily the spur is folded against the leg of the animal, but when used as a weapon it stands out like the gaff of a fighting cock. The duck-bill may well boast of its sting, because the honey-bee of Australia has none. [Illustration: An Australian emeu]