Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/503

Rh the south or east. Port Phillip Bay shines between the city and the ocean, and with a glass we can trace the course of the steamers as they enter or leave the great haven or creep along the coast.

"Immediately in front of the house the lawn sweeps down to a pretty pond or tiny lake, and around it is a garden in which all the flowers of two hemispheres seem to have made their home. We have been reminded over and over again, and on nearly every day of our stay in Australia, of the welcome which the climate gives to the flowers of other lands, and nowhere is the reminder more forcible than in the gardens of these country-houses near Melbourne. Every description of ornamental tree and flowering shrub is to be found there, and exotics vie with the native flowers of Australia in covering the ground with all the colors known to the artist. Not only is the ground carpeted with