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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE NATURAL HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA 1. Characteristics of Australian Vegetation. In Australia the vegetable no less than the animal kingdom presents features altogether different from those of other continents; and the naturalist finds himself in a strange and isolated world, having comparatively little in common with other divisions of the earth. In order to exhibit clearly the main peculiarities which distinguish the vegetable world in Australia, we shall first describe the general aspects and prominent features of the vegetation, and then discuss some of the botanical characteristics which throw light upon its early history and relations with other parts of the globe. The extensive seaboard of temperate Australia is everywhere characterised by a vegetation of a remarkably sombre and uniform colour, occasioned mainly by the peculiar foliage of the Eucalyptus and the small-leaved bushes constituting the scrub, the leaves of which lack that striking contrast of shade on their outer and under surfaces, which contributes so largely to the shifting tints of our European woodlands. Instead of spreading out horizontally, the foliage mostly hangs vertically from the branches, hence producing little shade in the forests;travelling through which is thereby rendered all the more fatiguing in the hot midday sun. The uniformity of this vegetation is intensified by the great area over which the same forms extend. The change of the seasons also, elsewhere causing the fresh A WOODLAND. and vivid green of the early spring to be succeeded by the softer summer hues and glorious golden tints of autumn, is marked by no such striking contrasts in the unvarying mantle of dull olive green clothing the Australian woodlands. Yet in the midst of this apparentmonotony we li...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217179201 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217179207 |
| Weight | 1.13 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.78 In |
| List Price | $23.00 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 348 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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