638 NOTES ON THE NATIVE FLORA OF N. S. WALES, ix., 



absent from some localities because other plants have obtained 

 possession, and, following the law of the "survival of the fittest," 

 retain such possession to the exclusion of the Snow-Gum. 



E. albens was found flowering on the Nandewar in November, at 

 an altitude of about 2,800 feet, its usual flowering period in the 

 western districts being in the autumn. As an evidence of the effect 

 of climate on plant distribution, it may be mentioned that south 

 of the Murrumbidgee, this species is usually below an elevation of 

 1,500 feet, while at a point on the Nandewars, about 350 miles 

 nortlierl)^, it is able to reach an altitude about 1,300 feet higher. 



The discovery of E. dives, the Peppermint of our western moun- 

 tains, on Mount Lindsay, is of very great interest, as hitherto it 

 had been considered by botanists to he restricted to the southern 

 side of the Hunter Valley. It was shortly afterwards (December, 

 1909) collected by Mr. J. L. Boorman at Guy Fawkes, east of Armi- 

 dale, the specimens being now in the National Herbarium, Botanic 

 Gardens, Sydney. This species, althougli a mountain plant, rather 

 prefers the western to the eastern aspect in New South Wales, and 

 extends from the Nandewars southerly at least as far as Ballarat in 

 Victoria. It is usually found at elevations from about 2,000 feet 

 upwards in this State, some of its lowest points of occurrence being 

 in the Goulburn to Yass district. On Mount Lindsay it was found 

 intermittently from about 3,500 to 4,500 feet, but does not occur on 

 the summit. 



It had always seemed remarkable that E. dives had not been 

 recorded from New England, and its absence from that locality 

 had been previously attributed to its inability to cross the compara- 

 tively warm valley of the Goulburn River, a tributary of the 

 Hunter. The Liverpool Range, in which the Goulburn River rises, 

 is in one place only about 1,700 feet above sea-level, which appears 

 to be too low for the growth of E. dives in latitudes north of 

 Sydney; and the Main Divide for many miles, where it winds past 

 Murrurundi towards New England, is very narrow, in places 

 amounting to only a few hundred yards, thus reducing the possi- 

 bilities of this tree spreading on to New England. Another point 

 is that the higher parts of the Liverpool Range are largely capped 



