BOTANY OF VICTORIA. 233 
Botany of Vicrorta (Southern Australia) ^ Exfracfs of Letters from 
Dr. Mur ier, Colonial Botanist, Victoria. 
Omeo, 16th December, 1854. 
After a prosperous journey over the central part of the Australian 
Alps, I will occupy a leisure hour or two to acquaint you briefly with 
the botanical results of my researches. Although I wrote to you only 
about a month ago, when returning from Mount Wellington (in Gipps 
Land), I may hope that another communication now will not be alto- 
gether unacceptable, as Dr. Jos. Hooker’s master mind and diligent 
hands are now occupied in the elucidation of the Tasmanian Flora, for 
which a few observations on the plants lately gathered here may prove 
useful. 
The want of time hardly permits me to enter into any other subjects 
but botanical ; still I shall briefly mention that I am the first and only 
white man who has ascended the two highest summits in the Bogong 
Range, probably the loftiest in this continent, which will receive the 
names Mount Hotham and Mount Latrobe, if his Excellency the 
. Lieutenant-Governor should be pleased to sanction them. Other 
snowy mountains which my bearings will connect with those already 
included in the trigonometrical survey of Australia, I beg leave to name, 
in respect to the following men, Hooker’s Plateau, Mount Leichardt, 
Kennedy’s Height, Mitchell’s Highland, and Clarke’s Peak. The boiling- 
water point was on the tops of Mount Hotham and Mount Latrobe 
equally 198? Fahr. (75° Réaum.),* although the former exceeds the alti- 
tude of the other by a few hundred feet. This equality was of course 
owing to the variation in the atmospherical pressure whilst the two 
observations took place. 
The vegetation of these lofty mountains cannot boast of so many 
peculiarities as I anticipated: repetitions of Tasmanian forms, or of 
such as I had already observed in other parts of the Australian High- — 
land, were by far prevailing. Amongst other novelties was a dwarf 
scale of his thermometer was not accurate, and it is impossible to derive any secure 
Professor J. D. Forbes, the re- —— 
conclusion from such an observation. According to Protessor ; 
duction is very simple, being in the simple arithmetical ratio Bhi "e ' 
lect) to 1° of Fahr. for each degree below 212° at average pressure. ^09 WEE 
give for 198° Fahr, an altitude above the sea of 7980 English feet, ' Nec 
only 6413 feet.” 
VOL. VII, 
2H 
