AUSTRALIAN VEGETATION. 203 
ingly to the lowlands, but show at once a fondness for a wet, insular 
climate. The few Tasmanian genera, represented besides only in Victoria, 
are liichea, Diplarrhena, DrymopJiila, Juncella. In the Tasmanian high- 
lands flora; endemic shrubby Asters and Epacridea, and the singular en- 
demic Pines of various genera, constitute a marked feature. A closer and 
more extended inquiry into the geological relation of great assemblages 
of vegetation will shed probably more light on the enigmatic laws by 
which the dispersion of plants is ruled. Australian forms predominate 
also in Tasmania at snowy heights, as Eucalyptus Gunnii, E. coccifera, 
and E. urnigera. The famous Huon-pine (Dacrydium Franklini), the 
Palm-heath (Richea panda n /folia), the celery-topped Pine (Phijllocladus 
rh),)iboidaUH),i\\\ { \ the deciduous Beech (Fagus Ganmi), are among the 
most striking objects of its insular vegetation. Mosses, Lichenastra, 
Lichens, and conspicuous Fungi abound both in alpine and low regions; 
indeed, cryptogamic plants, except Alga and microscopic Fungi, are 
nowhere in Australia really frequent except in Tasmania, in the Austra- 
lian Alps, and in the fern-tree glens of Victoria and part of New South 
Hales. The Musk-tree (Aster argophyllus) of Tasmania and South- 
east Australia is the largest of the few trees produced by the vast Order 
of Composite in any part of the globe, while Erostantliera lasianthos, 
its companion, exhibits the only real tree known in the extensive 
family of Labia t<e. The almost exclusive occupation of vast littoral 
tracts of Gippsland, and some of the adjoining islands, by the dwarf 
A.authorrha>a minor is remarkable. Mistletoes do not extend to Tas- 
mania, though over every other part of Australia; neither the Nardoo 
(Alarsilia quadrifolia), of melancholy celebrity, though to be found in 
every part of the continent, and abounding in innumerable varieties 
throughout the depressed parte of the interior. Eyuis&tacea occur 
nowhere. The total of the species to be admitted as well defined, and 
nitherto known, from all parts of Australia approaches (with exclusion 
of microscopic fungi) to 10,000. 
The marvellous height of some of the Australian, and especially 
ictorian trees, has become the subject of closer investigation, since 
01 'ate, particularly through the miners' tracks, easier access has been 
pitied to the back-gullies of our mountain-system. Some astounding 
ata > supported by actual measurements, are now on record. The 
^hest tree previously known was a Karri-Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus 
tohuea), measured by Mr. Pembertou Walcott, in one of the de- 
