EUCALYPTUS ALPINA. 



Lindley, in Mitchell's three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia ii. 175 (1838); Brogniart et 

 GuiDemin, Annales des sciences naturalles, seconde serie, xvii. 57 ; Walpers, repertorium botanices systematicae 

 ii. 925 ; F. M., fragmenta phytographiie Australia ii. 68 ; Bentham, ilora Australiensis iii. 225. 



Shruhhy ; brancUets stout, almost cylindrical ; leaves scattered, on thick stalks, from broad- 

 oblong and oval to roundish, of thick consistence, of eqnal color and shining on both pages, ■with 

 moderately spreading faint and not crowded veins, the intramarginal vein distinctly removed from 

 the edge ; the oil-dots concealed or scantily develoj)ed ; flowers sessile in the axils, solitary or 

 oftener from 2 to 4 or rarely 5 together, some not rarely lateral ; calyx more or less warty-rough ; 

 the lid irregularly semiovate or semiglobular ; the tube nearly hemispherical, about as long as the 

 lid or slightly longer ; stamens incurved while in bud, all fertile ; anthers ovate-cordate, opening 

 •with longitudinal slits ; fruits almost hemispherical, not angular, of rather considerable size, its 

 vertical margin broad, slightly protruding and ascending, finally convex ; valves 4-6, half- 

 exserted, deltashaped ; seeds without any appendage, the sterile seeds mostly not very narrow. 



On the smnmit of Mount WUliam, at an elevation of over 4,000 feet. 



This in many respects remarkable species was discovered by Colonel Sir Thomas MitcheU, 

 when that eminent geogTapher explored a vast extent of Victoria, discovered also the Grampians 

 and ascended (in July 1836) the mountain, to the top of which this Eucalypt is absolutely 

 restricted ; for it does not even extend to any other summits in the chain, of which Mount 

 WiUiam is the culminating point, seeking unlike most of its congeners a subalpine zone for its 

 habitation (with us always first indicated by the presence of Celmisia longifolia), though I have 

 sought for the same species in vain anywhere in the Australian Alps. But it is not the only one, 

 which endures quite a frigid clime, inasmuch as in the snowy mountains of Victoria and New 

 South Wales the timber-vegetation terminates also with species of Eucalyptus, thus E. Gunnii 

 and E. pauciflora in a dwarfed state ascending to heights of over 5,000 feet in the Australian Alps, 

 while in Tasmania E. vernicosa, E. cocctfera and E. urnigera (also with E. Gunnii and E. pauciflora) 

 penetrate likewise to alpine elevations, and brave the keen frosts and snow-storms, which in the 

 uppermost Eucalyptus-region occur for several months in the year. 



It will be interesting for the geography of plants to ascertain, whether the Eucalyptus- 

 vegetation of New Guinea advances there also to the as yet unexplored alpine regions. 



E. alpina is remarkable also for being restricted to a small area of one single mountain, just 

 as is the case with a few of its companions or neighbors there, for instance Pultenrea rosea, 

 Calycothrix Sullivani, Bauera sessiliflora, Stylidium soboliferum ; and similar isolations are shown 

 by Wittsteinia vacciniacea, which is confined to the highest regions of Mount Baw-Baw exclusively, 

 whUe Goodenia Macmillani occupies a short distance of one single slate-valley on the MacAllister- 

 River, not to allude to some similar instances even within our colony. Here however a hope may 

 be expressed, that plants of such extreme rarity should not be allowed as in St. Helena (and as 

 unfortunately also in many other parts of the globe) to be swept away and even utterly annihilated, 

 when intelligent foresight might protect them ungrudgingly and unmolested in their place of 

 creation, from which they could not wander away. By some slight circumspect exertions we 

 might preserve for the contemplation and delight also of future generations these extremely local 

 forms of the existing creation, whose very representative existence in their almost solitary spots, 

 is so much endangered, aware that divine wisdom called forth even the most scantily distributed 

 organic beings in nature by unalterable laws for designed purposes. Hence no ell'orts of any 



