— 
REPORT ON THE VEGETATION OF VICTORIA. 313 
material for furniture, at once most substantial, and capable of a high 
polish, being also recommended for the finishing work of vessels. The 
Myrtle tree of Sealer's Cove and the Snowy River (Acmena floribunda) 
is also remarkable for its straight growth and its excellent wood. The 
Australian evergreen Beech (Fagus Cunninghami) forms a noble tree, 
sometimes more than a hundred feet high, of which the wood takes a 
beautiful polish. Omitting such kinds as are more generally known, 
I may yet mention as useful, chiefly for ornamental work, the Sassafras 
wood (from Atherosperma moschatum), the Lomatia-wood (from Loma- 
tia polymorpha), that of the Tolosa-tree (Pittosporum bicolor), the Musk- 
wood (from Eurybia argophylla), the Iron-wood (from Notelea ligus- 
trina), that of the Oil-fruit tree (Zlzocarpus cyaneus), the Zieria-wood 
(from Zieria arborescens), that of the Heath-tree (Monotoca elliptica), 
and of the Australian Mulberry-tree (Psewdomorus Australasica). 
Samples of those kinds, which are met with on Wilson’s Promontory, 
have been procured for the Paris Exhibition, and may give some addi- 
tional proof that we possess woods here for any purpose, with the 
exception perhaps of such as are fit for larger ships’ masts. 
Many other plants of practical value were noticed during my last 
expedition, amongst them a kind of New Zealand Spinach (Zetragonia 
inermis) ; an undescribed Elder-tree (Sambucus xanthocarpa); a sort of 
Hottentot Fig (Mesembryanthemum precor), from the Murray Desert, 
deserving cultivation for its agreeable fruit. To the series of native 
fruits enumerated last year might be further added Nitraria Billardieri, 
and several species of Exocarpus, Leucopogon, and Lissanthe. Under 
the name of Australian Sarsaparilla, either the stems of Hardenbergia 
monophylla, or of Miihlenbeckia appressa and complexa, are employed ; 
whilst a plant closely allied to the American root (Smilax spinescens) 
remained hitherto unnoticed. 
Turning, finally, to our future prospects, as afforded to us by the 
enjoyment of the serenest climate and by the extensive fertility of the - 
soil, I venture to say, that no praise too high can be bestowed in a 
general view on the productiveness of our adopted country. We 
possess in the Southern hemisphere, what the ancients in the Northern 
called “ regiones felices, "—those happy latitudes of a warm temperate 
zone, in which Nature with a prodigal hand offered prominently, amidst 
so many other gifts, the Cerealia, the Olive, and the Vine, and to which 
we there have added from the far East, the Orange, the Tea; from 
VOL. VII. 25 
