Hence the woods appear
light and shadowless: this, although a loss of comfort to the
traveller under the scorching rays of summer, is of importance to
the farmer, as it allows grass to grow where it otherwise would
not. The leaves are not shed periodically: this character appears
common to the entire southern hemisphere, namely, South America,
Australia, and the Cape of Good Hope. The inhabitants of this
hemisphere, and of the intertropical regions, thus lose perhaps one
of the most glorious, though to our eyes common, spectacles in the
world--the first bursting into full foliage of the leafless tree.
They may, however, say that we pay dearly for this by having the
land covered with mere naked skeletons for so many months. This is
too true; but our senses thus acquire a keen relish for the
exquisite green of the spring, which the eyes of those living
within the tropics, sated during the long year with the gorgeous
productions of those glowing climates, can never experience. The
greater number of the trees, with the exception of some of the
Blue-gums, do not attain a large size; but they grow tall and
tolerably straight, and stand well apart. The bark of some of the
Eucalypti falls annually, or hangs dead in long shreds which swing
about with the wind, and give to the woods a desolate and untidy
appearance.
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