154 FOREST CULTURE AND 
and Casuarinas were raised, a vast variety of useful 
plants could be reared along the water-courses of the 
more central parts of Australia. Saltbushes, in great 
variety, stretch far inland, and this is the forage on 
which flocks so admirably thrive. Probably the ex- 
tensive Asiatic steppes have to boast of no greater di- 
versity of salsolaceous plants than our own. Never- 
theless, even here much could be added to the pro- 
ductiveness of these pasturages by the introduction of 
other perennial fodder herbs. Grasses, wherever they 
occur, are varied, and a large share is perennial, 
nutritious, and widely diffused. As corroborative, 
it may be instanced that Anthistiria ciliata, the 
common kangaroo-grass, almost universally ranges 
_ over Australia, and thus also over the central steppes 
of the continent. It extends, indeed, to Asia and 
North Africa also. Besides, through the interior, 
grasses, especially of Panicum and Andropogon, are 
numerous, either on the oases, or interspersed with 
shrubs on barren spots. Festuca or Triodia irritans, 
the porcupine-grass of the settlers, is restricted to the 
sands of the extra-tropical latitudes ; Festuca or Triodia 
viscida, chiefly to the sandstone table-lands of the 
tropics. 
Only in the south-eastern parts of the continent, 
and in Tasmania, are the mountains rising to alpine 
elevations. Mount Hotham, in Victoria, and Mount 
Kosciusko, in New South Wales, form the culminat 
ing points, each slightly exceeding seven thousand 
feet in height. In the ravines of these summits 
lodge perennial glaciers ; at six thousand feet snow: 
remains unmelted for nearly the whole of the year, 
and snow-storms may occur in these eleyations dur- 
