60 



(A. selaginoides), with loi ger and more spreading, prickly 

 leaves, is more prized in England than this species ; but I 

 think this is the more elegant of the two. The third species 

 {A. cuprcssoides) is a much more sombre tree, with smaller and 

 blunter leaves closely appressed to the branchlets. All the 

 species are, I believe, peculiar to Tasmania. 



Among the many shrubs through which we now walked 

 and, sometimes, struggled, may be mentioned JPersoonia 

 Gunnii, with its olive-shaped leaves and black sloe-like fruit, — 

 Orites revolitta, Decaspora thymifolia, Tetracarpoea Tasmanicay 

 ^i^;•yJm^Ji?^^/bZm, with itspungent leaves, — Ozothamnus Hooker i^ 

 and Boeckia Gunniana. Above us, at a height of about 400 

 feet, was the summit of the mountain, to which we clambered 

 by a sinuous course over the loose stones, taking care not to 

 move until we were all proceeding in the same direction, in 

 order to avoid rolling down the stones on each other. Arrived 

 at the tolerably level ground above, covered here and there 

 with flat rocks, or with great stones among the smaller shrubs 

 and grass, we could see Cummings's Head to the northward, 

 while the Ironstone Range, with its trigonometrical station 

 and its " Bastion Bluffs," lay to the south-west, behind our 

 left shoulder. 



"The cider-tree " {Eucalyptus Gimnii) was plentiful on the 

 stony rises, and various alpine shrubs grew beneath its shade, 

 or on the open ground. Sp)rengelia montana and Cystanthe 

 sprengelioides, — both of the Epacris tribe, the latter closely 

 resembling Sprengelia incar7iata,h\xt with the peculiar calyptrate 

 flowers of the genus Cystanthe, — are found here. Here are the 

 " green cushions," already mentioned, so well-known to moun- 

 tain excursionists, at first sight appearing to be composed of one 

 plant only, but proving, on examination, to combine four or 

 five ; for instance, Scleroleima Forsteroides and Pterygopappus 

 Jjawrencii, both plants of the Composite Tribe, — Coprosma 

 pumila, of the Madder Tribe, — Bernettya Tasmanica, of the 

 Heath Tribe, and Oreololus Fumilio, a cyperaceous plant, are 

 all found densely packed together in a green, rounded mass, 

 dotted here and there with the drupes of the Coprosma, and the 

 berries of the Bernettya, or powdered lightly with the tiny 

 flowers of the various plants composing it. The little Hubus 

 Gunnianus, of the Rose Tribe, with cream-coloured, bramble- 

 like flowers, followed by blackberry-like fruit of good flavour, 

 occurs in dry sandy spots ; the common burr {AccBna 

 ^aiujuisorhcB), of the same tribe, exhibits its patches of pretty 

 green, wrinkled leaves, smaller and more wrinkled than those 

 of the variety on the low ground ; EuryVia persoonioides and 

 E. alpina of the Composite or Daisy-flowered Tribe, — thrown 

 together into one species by Bentham, but differing in some 



