Page:Rambles in Australia (IA ramblesinaustral00grewiala).pdf/230

 rocks, which crop out everywhere among the short grass, smoothed and weathered by time. Graceful grey pepper trees grow in many of the gardens, drooping over the fences. The road, which ran up and down hill, ended abruptly in a boulder. We got out, and walked along to the edge of the South Head, the southern extremity of the entrance to the harbour, where the purple Pacific booms in the cavities of the high sandstone cliffs. This view from the South Head is one of the most beautiful in Australia. The blue waters of the harbour are guarded by sentinel cliffs, and misty range on range of low hills stretch away inland.

Here we saw growing for the first time the lantana, a hardy shrub, not unlike the "meal tree" of our hedges at home, but with pink and yellow flowers. It is a very decorative thing, but is regarded in Australia, and especially in Queensland, as a noxious weed.

We returned home by way of the Domain, or public park, adjoining the Botanical Gardens, along a road lined by the stately Morton Bay Pine.

One day in Sydney was devoted to an excursion by boat round the harbour. It is a curious fact that Captain Cook, in his careful survey of the east coast of Australia,