108 THE EUCALYPTS OF GIPPSLAND. 



continent may be as well studied in Gippsland as in any part that I have seen from 

 Shoalhaven to beyond Adelaide. These must certainly have produced variations of 

 climate, extending back beyond the Cainozoic period. 



The Gippsland Alps have not been submerged below a contour line of some 

 800ft. to 1000ft. above sea level, not only during that period of time, but that land 

 surface must have been continuous backwards to the time when the Mesozoic coal 

 measures of Gippsland were formed. 



The lauraceous and other plants which have been found in the Miocene drifts 

 of Gippsland, indicate, as does also the faima of the marine limestones of that district, 

 a warmer climate than of the present day. 



Lake Karng at Mount Wellington, if it be a moraine lake, points, on the 

 other hand, to an alpine climate, descending to within at least 3000ft. of the sea 

 level. Such changes of climate have evidently been attended by a corresponding 

 change in the Tertiary flora, in which that element, which is now characteristic 

 of Australia, has gradually predominated. Such changes of climate may, as it 

 seems to me, also account in part for the great number of recorded types of 

 Eucalypts and their varieties, and of which no less than 35 occur in Gippsland. 



Geological formation, as producing variation of soil, has no doubt influenced 

 the present distribution of the Eucalypts, but its effects cannot be made out so 

 clearly as those produced by climate, but the broad features can be readily seen by 

 anyone travelling through Gippsland. E. tereticornis grows almost entirely on lauds 

 which have been at one time lake or estuary beds, or in the alluvial flats of rivers. 



The stringy-bark Eucalypts prefer the Tertiary sands and sandy clays. E. odorata 

 grows mainly on the Miocene limestone, but this partiality to particular formations 

 is not so apparent when all the Eucalypts are considered. Still, in looking over 

 the whole of Gippsland, I observed some marked cases which it would be well to note. 

 A good instance is afforded by E. amygdalina regnans (b), which, in Gippsland, 

 grows almost wholly upon the Mesozoic coal measures. E. hemiphloia appears to be 

 confined to the Plutonic and Metamorphic areas of the Tambo and Snowy Rivers. A final 

 instance may be taken from the Gelantipy tableland, to the west of the Snowy River, 

 which shows how certain Eucalypts grow preferentially upon certain formations. 

 This tableland is formed by a great thickness of Devonian and Plutonic rocks, 

 overlaid by more or less connected sheets of Tertiary basalt. I observed that on the 

 former grow especially E. piperita, E. globulus, E. sieberiana, and E. amygdalina, 

 and on the latter formation E. stuartiana, E. melhodora, E. polyanthema, and E. 

 macrorhyncha. 



The annexed table has been compiled from observations which I have made in 

 almost all parts of Gippsland, and shows the distribution of the Eucalypts on the 

 various forniiitions. 



