22 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



as this. After revisiting Cabbage-tree Creek, he travelled along 

 the coast to Lake King, finding Acronychia (Rutacese), a genus 

 from Eastern Australia and New Caledonia, remarkable for its 

 splendid wood and aromatic properties. Thence back to 

 Melbourne, apparently by the ordinary Gippsland track, regret- 

 ting his inability to ascend Baw Baw on account of illness. 



He remarks that the Victorian truly alpine and sub-alpine 

 plants exceed loo species, of which at least half are endemic, 

 while the larger part of the rest comprise such as inhabit Tas- 

 mania, or are likewise natives of New Zealand. Thus the genus 

 Drapetes (Thymelese), thought to belong exclusively to Fuegia, is 

 now ascertained to exist, with other plants from the cold zone of 

 South America, in the Australian Alps, Tasmania, New Zealand, 

 and Borneo. 



He adds : — " A most surprising fact is the sudden reappearance 

 of several European plants in the heart of the Alps, which may 

 be searched for in vain in intervening country, such as Turritis 

 glabra, Sagina prociimhens, Alchemilla vulgaris, Veronica serpilli- 

 folia, Garex echinata, and Botrychium lunaria. I may also 

 refer to Lysimachia vulgaris in Gippsland morasses as a singular 

 instance of the enigmatic laws which rule the distribution of 

 plants, and I cannot suppress the opinion that such facts tend to 

 annihilate all the theories in favour of the migration of species 

 from supposed centres of origin." He estimates the Victorian 

 plants at 2,000 species, and says 15 genera had been added to 

 flora of continent during the year (1854). 



I will now return to the special despatch, dated Omeo, i6lh 

 December, 1854, from which I make the following extract: — 

 " Left the Avon on the 22nd November, thence up the Mitchell, 

 Wentworth, and Dargo Rivers, and crossed the Dividing Range 

 between the waters of Gippsland and the Murray, near the upper 

 part of the Cobungra. Thence I traversed a grassy table-land in 

 a north-easterly direction, along the Cobungra downwards, until 

 the country appeared practicable towards the north, to reach the 

 highest part of Bogong Ranges, The ranges hereabouts have 

 never been traversed by civilized men. They are timbered with 

 Mountain Gum-tree, Eucalyptus phlebophylla. On 3rd December 

 I ascended the south-east of the two highest mountains of the 

 Bogong Range, and believed it to be nearly 7,000 feet high. The 

 much more abrupt and yet higher summit of the north-west mount 

 I ascended from the Upper Mitta, which skirts the base, on 6th 

 December; unquestionably several hundred feet higher. On both 

 mountains mighty masses of snow lay far below summit. Con- 

 sidering that mountains of such altitude, probably the two highest 

 on the Australian continent, deserve distinctive names I solicit 

 His Excellency's permission to name the grandest of both 

 Mt. Hotham, and the second in height Mt. Latrobe, as I trust 



