/'// YSIOGRAI'll } ()/ . \ US 'J A'. 1 1.. I SI A. 



'339 



land, while the largest of all (D. Fitzgerald! ), is confined to Lord Howe's Island, all 

 pointing to a coeval epoch in the migration or development of these notable plants 

 of the Epacrid order. 



The first discovery of Eucalypts will 

 ever remain memorable for Tasmania. Indeed 

 Tasman's carpenter, as indicated in an earlier 

 part of this work, seems already to have 

 been astounded by their vast dimensions. 

 Exactly one hundred years ago, the genus 

 Eucalyptus was founded by 1'Heritier, on 

 the ordinary stringy-bark tree {E. obliqua), 

 of which he obtained branchlets gathered by 

 Captain Cook's officers during their third 

 expedition, not far from where the city of 

 Hobart was subsequently built. From that 

 historic spot, towards the end of the century, 

 E. globulus was also obtained, as one of the 

 marvels of the vegetation of the world, namely, 

 during Captain d'Entrecasteaux's expedition 

 in search of La Perouse and De Langle. 

 Unlike E. obliqua, the Blue-Gum tree extends 

 hardly beyond Tasmania and Victoria as in- 

 digenous, nor does it constitute by gregarious 

 growth any extensive forests of its own. 

 Similarly restricted to Tasmania and Victoria 

 is the Fagus Cunninghami, a large ever- 

 green beech ; and almost the same might be 

 said of the most aromatic of all the so-called 

 Sassafras-trees (Atkcrosperma moschatuni), 

 because New Zealand, New South Wales 

 and Queensland have Sassafras-trees of their 

 own, though all are allied to each other. 

 The absence of Mistletoes in Tasmania, and 

 even still in King's Island, is singular ; to 

 the latter, however, the Celery-leaved Pine 

 (Phyllocladus rlunnboidalis) extends, and even 

 in New Zealand several species of Loranthus 

 reach far south. As among the last rem- 

 nants of tropic vegetation there, may be 

 considered the woocly Lyonsia-climber and 



two diminutive species of epiphytal Orchids. EPACRIS IMPHI 



But Fern-trees of palm-like aspect, and as 

 expressive of the flora of warmer zones, though absent in the living vegetation of the conti- 

 nent of Europe, even in that of the most southern regions, form a superb picture yet in 



