Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/25

This page has been validated.
4
THE BRUSH.

The popular names of the most remarkable brush trees are as follow:—Red Cedar, White Cedar,[1] Mahogany, Tulipwood, Rosewood, Ironwood,[2] Lightwood, Sassafras, Corkwood, the Australian Tamarind,[3] Box, the numerous and elegant varieties of trees of the Myrtle genus,[4] the Australian Palms, and the Brush Fig-tree, which, from being originally a mere creeper, requiring the support of another tree, gradually envelopes it, and attains occasionally such a size, as to cause it to rank among the largest vegetable productions in the world. But the peculiar appearance of the brush is principally caused by the countless species of creepers, wild vines, and parasitical plants of singular conformation, which, interlaced and entwined in

  1. Red cedar, Cedrela Toona, is quite different from the Lebanon cedar, Pinus Cedrus, and also from the American Pencil cedar, which is a species of juniper. The White cedar, Melia Azederach,, appears to be identically the same as the Pride tree of Asia. The foliage of both red and white cedar is deciduous.
  2. The Australian trees, popularly named Rosewood, Mahogany, &c. belong to totally different genera from the American trees of those appellations, the names having been given from the similar appearance of the wood.
  3. This very beautiful tree is dissimilar in every respect to the Tamarind tree of the Indies; it has obtained its popular appellation from the grateful acidity of its fruit, which hangs in large clusters of transparent, amber-coloured berries, of the size of small grapes.
  4. The berries of several trees of the Myrtle tribe are edible, and are sometimes used for tarts, preserves, &c. by the settlers.