Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1892 — Australian Shrubbery. [ARTICLE]

Australian Shrubbery.

With the exception of a living carpet of delicate maidenhair, which attains a height of from five to six feet, and of ropes of creeper ferns which swing from tree to tree like fairies in the castle of a giant, the forest of Australia is altogether bare of undergrowth. In the woods of recent growth, however, vegetation is more luxuriant. The long tendrils of the clematis and rata connect trunk with trunk in garlands of white and scarlet bloom, and at their base flourishes an infinite variety of ferns, while here and there a graceful tree-fern rears its silvery-lined crown.