11 



CONTEIBUTIONS TO THE PHYTOGEAPHY OF 

 TASMAJSIIA. 



By Feed. Yon Mtjellee, C.M.G., M.D., F.E.S. 



11. 



The following pages have but slight claims on special 

 scientific consideration. They are merely the results of a 

 short excursion through Tasmania, at a time when the writer 

 sought invigoration from the bracing air and rural tranquillity 

 of the island, and preferred to spend the very few days allotted 

 to his stay rather in the undisturbed highland solitudes than 

 in the pleasures of sociality. He bent his way to the phyto- 

 logically unexplored ranges of Mount Field, to institute a 

 comparison of their vegetation with that of other alpine rises 

 of Tasmania. The charm of this occupation was augmented 

 by the circumstance that it was his first visit to a country 

 whose vegetation he had aided to elucidate from museum- 

 materials more than 20 years since, and with whose plants 

 he commenced to become acquainted fully 30 years ago. Here, 

 then, for the first time, he could glance over the many endeared 

 highland plants, in all their gay freshness and wild natural 

 grace ! This short exploratory tour had still another addi- 

 tional interest. It afforded means of contrasting not only the 

 considerations of many alpine plants of Tasmania with the com- 

 plexer of highland species in the Australian Alps, but it led 

 also to some researches by which the relation of the existing 

 Tasmanian vegetation to distinct geological formations should 

 be trac'ed. In this direction lengthened inquiries need yet 

 to be carried on — inquiries which are of general philosophical 

 importance. 



For the notes herewith offered, some material was also con- 

 tributed by enlightened and generous friends, whose taste and 

 knowledge led them to observe the forms of vegetation near 

 their domiciles. It may encourage future inquiries to know 

 that the whole tracts of lofty ranges from West Mount Field 

 to Mount Humboldt and Frenchman's Cap remain, as regards 

 vegetable life, hitherto utterly unexplored ; that also from the 

 country about Port Davey hardly any plants have ever been 

 brought away, although the snow-clad summits of the former, 

 and the jungles of the latter, must teem with rarities. Even 

 the extreme north-east of Tasmania, as well as Hunter's 

 Island and the adjacent shores, promise to render known to 

 systematic searchers many kinds of plants, with which we are 

 only hitherto acquainted from Gipp's Land, and this remark 



