94 On a General Introduction of 



Alps to the western desert we experience, as may expected, a 

 drier and warmer temperature, many tracts of it being highly 

 adapted for the growth of viae, and probably also of Tobacco, 

 Orange, Olive. 



In the southern portion of the colony, under a cooler and a 

 moister air, we are invited, particularly in the coast vicinity, to 

 the culture of the field-plants of Great Britain. 



In the south-eastern part of our territory the prototypes of 

 a tropical vegetation become of such frequent occurrence, that 

 probably at a later period, when labour is to be obtained at a 

 more equal rate with that of other countries, and (as Mr. 

 Savage ingeniously pointed out), under the aid of machinery, 

 these tracts of land may furnish, if not for export, at least for 

 local consumption, some of the products of less tender plant 

 now obtained from Indian plantations. 



Such supposition may appear hazardous, when we reflect on 

 the far southern extra tropical position of our colony ; but it 

 is evident, that the isothermal bines are bending at our eastern 

 frontiers southward to a degree quite unusual, as indicated by 

 the occurrence of palm-trees of enormous size (Livistona Aus- 

 tralia), in the parallel of Melbourne, accompanied by manifold 

 members of a tropical flora, which in vain would be searched 

 for in our immediate vicinity. 



I venture to ascribe the serenity of the climate of Eastern 

 Gipps Land, already alluded to in an official report on 

 my travels, to a combined cause — namely, to the shelter, 

 which the high mountain-chains of Van Diemen's Land 

 afford to our opposite coast against the cold and antarctic 

 breezes, and secondly, to an increase of heat or a mitigation of 

 the winter temperature, resulting either directly from the 

 southern current of the Pacific Ocean, along the coast of New 

 South Wales, or from the indirect influence which so vast an 

 expanse of water in ample contact with a wide tropical sea 

 must exercise upon the coast tracts. The country referred to 

 is. however, not directly available ; dense forests and extensive 

 morasses form obstacles at present even to a traveller. But 

 with better access to it hereafter, its great humidity, together 

 with much facility for irrigation, will render it doubtless emi- 

 nently adapted for the growth of rice and other culture plants 

 of sub-tropical countries ; rice being ^rown under the same 

 isothermal line in Carolina and some parts of South Europe. 

 If the Breadfruit 'Artocarpus incisa) which is cultivated a little 

 beyond the tropics in South America, adapts itself to our 

 climate, it will be at these localities. 



