EUCALYPTUS TREES. 155 
ing the midst of Summer. At five thousand feet 
the vegetation of shrubs generally commences, and 
up to this height ascend two Eucalypts, Eucalyptus 
coriacesw and Gunnii, forming dense and extensive 
thickets ; E. coriacez assuming, however, in lower 
valleys, huge dimensions. Both these, with most of 
our alpine plants, would deserve transplanting to 
middle 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 clime many alpine plants descend there along 
the torrents and rivulets to the base of the mountains 
which here are constantly clinging to cold elevations. 
Mount William is the only sub-alpine height isolated | 
in Victoria from the great complex of snowy mount- 
ains, but it produces, beyond Eucalyptus alpina, and 
Pultenza rosea, which are confined to the crest of that 
royal mountain, only Celmisia longifolia 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 Eng- 
land we know only Scleranthus bifiorus, a cushion- 
like plant, exquisitely adapted for margining garden 
plots, and Gualtheria hispida, 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 Tas- 
mania contrasts in some important respects with that 
of the Australian Alps—namely, therein that under 
the prevalence of a much higher degree of humidity, 
