the pomegranate, and others, flourish beyond description, as do
English fruit trees of every kind. It is to be observed, that the climate
of the plains of Adelaide and that of the hills are distinct. I have been
in considerable heat in the former at noon, and on the hills have been in
frost in the evening. The forest trees of Europe will grow in the ranges,
but on the plains they languish; in the ranges also the gooseberry and
the currant bear well, but in the gardens on the plains they are admitted
only to say you have such fruits; the pomegranate will not mature in the
open air, but melons of all kinds are weeds. Yet, such trees as are
congenial to the climate arrive at maturity with incredible rapidity, and
bear in the greatest abundance. The show of grapes in Mr. Stephenson's
garden in North Adelaide, and the show of apples and plums in Mr.
Anstey's garden on the hills are fine beyond description, and could not
be surpassed in any part of the world--it may readily be imagined,
therefore, that the intermediate fruit trees, such as the peach, the
nectarine, the pear, the cherry, the greengage, and others, are of the
most vigorous habits. All of them, indeed, are standards, and the wood
they make during one season, is the best proof that can be given of their
congeniality to the soil and climate of the province.

There are in South Australia two periods of the year which are equally
deceptive to the stranger. The one is when the country is burnt up and
suffering under the effects of summer heat--when the earth is almost
herbless, and the ground swarms with grasshoppers--when a dry heat
prevails in a calm still air. The other when vegetation is springing up
under the early rains and every thing is green. Arriving at Adelaide
during the first period, the stranger would hardly believe that the
country, at any other season of the year, would be so clothed with
herbage and look so fresh; arriving at the other, he would equally doubt
the possibility of the vegetable kingdom being laid so completely
prostrate, or that the country could assume so withered and parched an
appearance; but these changes are common to every country under a similar
latitude, and it would be unjust to set them down to its prejudice, or
advantage.

The following mean of heat at 2 p.m. throughout the year, will give the
reader a correct idea of the range of the thermometer. I have taken 2
p.m. as being the hottest period of the day, and, therefore, nea