AUSTRALIAN VEGETATION. 
2 1 * 
feet generally the vegetation of shrubs commences, and up to this 
height ascend two Eucalypts, Eucalyptus coriacea and Gunnii, forming 
dense and extensive thickets ; E. coriacea assuming, however, in lower 
valleys, huge dimensions. But these, with most of Qur alpine plants, 
would deserve transplanting to central Europe and to other countries 
of the temperate zone, where they would well cope with the vicissitudes 
of the climate. In Tasmania the winter snow-line sinks considerably 
lower, and in its moister climate many alpine plants there descend 
along the torrents and rivulets to the base of the mountains, which are 
constantly clinging to cold elevations. Mount William is the only 
subalpine height isolated in Victoria from the great complex of snowy 
mountains, but it produces, beyond Eucalyptus alpina and PuUenaa 
rosea, which are confined to the crest of that royal mountain, only 
Celmkia lowjifolia and little else as the mark of an alpine or rather 
subalpine flora. Celmisia also is one of the few representatives of cold 
heights in the Blue Mountains ; and from New England we know only 
Scleranthus biflorus, a cushion-like plant, exquisitely adapted for mar- 
gining garden plots, as generally indicating spots on which snow lodges 
for some of the winter months. The mountains of Queensland would 
need in their tropical latitudes a greater height than they possess for 
nourishing analogous forms of life. But the truly alpine vegetation of 
the high mountains of Tasmania contrasts in some important respects 
with that of the Australian Alps — namely, therein, that under the 
prevalence of a much higher degree of humidity plants which delight 
{ o he bathed in clouds, or in the dense vapours of the surrounding 
fem-tree valleys, are much more universal ; and that the number of 
Peculiar alpine genera is much greater than here. Thus, while in Tas- 
mania the magnificent Evergreen Beech {Fagus Cunningham)) covers 
,aa ny of the ranges up to subalpine rises, it predominates as a forest 
tr ee in Victoria only at the remotest sources of the Yarra, the Latrobe, 
and the Goulburn rivers, and on xMount Baw-Baw. To this outpost 
of the Australian Alps (now so accessible to metropolitan tourists) are 
restricted also several plants, such as Oxalis Magellanica and Libertia 
Lawrencii, which are almost universal on all the higher hills of Tas- 
mania. Fagus Cunninghami, though descending into our fern-tree 
rav ines, transgresses nowhere the Victorian land-boundaries, but a 
»°hle Fagus- forest, constituted by a distinct and equally evergreen 
•Peeies, Fagus Moorei, crowns the high ranges on which the Bellinger 
