140 BOTANICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEW HOLLAND. 
and Senecio are very characteristic; while, on the ridges that — 
separate the Downs from each other, the genera Eucalyptus ^d 
and Ezocarpus, with Callitris spheroidalis, may be seen. — A 
FirrH CLAss. Alpine Vegetation.—1t begins in the valleys a 
ofthe Alps, and reaches their summits; amalgamating, 0n A 
one side, with that of the meadows or Minero Downs, and | | 
terminating on the other,in a point which our present state x. 
of knowledge will not allow us to overstep. I have traced — 
it to the summit of Mount William the Fourth, certainly one — 
of the loftiest among the Australian Alps. Supposing these — 
mountains should somewhere rise to the elevation of perpetual - 
snow, the extent of this latter Class will, of course, be con- — 
siderably increased. At all events, it is certain, that the 23 
numberless peaks and rocky slopes of this chain must yield — 
a great accession to the New Holland Flora, even supposing — 
that there should be no great novelty in the genera and — 
species of the plants which grow there. As the difference a. 
latitude between the Australian Alps and the Table Moun- 
tain of Van Dieman’s Land is only five degrees, it must be 
presumed that although the former mountains be several 
thousand feet higher* than the latter, yet that many of the | 
productions of the Table Mountain will also occur on the 
Alps ; and when it is taken into consideration that Dr. Brow? 
ascended the Table Mountain no less than nine times, the 
chance of discovering any very remarkable novelties on the 
yet unexplored heights of New Holland, is much diminishec- 
One species of Eucalyptus, growing from twelve to twenty 
feet high, is the only tree that rewarded my researches 
among the Alpine vegetation ; but some rangers and stoe 
— having assured me that a large tree, of a particular. 
— > may be seen in one of the valleys, most probably 
species of Atherosperma, there assuredly remains something 
yet to be detected and identified in this Class of vegetation. : 
The soil in this division is primitive, and in those spot 
* According to a calculation, made from the temperature, viz. 196% at : 
which water boiled on the summit of Mount William the Fourth, this 
mountain has an elevation of 8,000 feet. cae 
