Useful Plajits into Victoria. 97 



It seems unlikely that the Tea-plant ever will advance to 

 commercial value in this country, considering the amount of 

 manual labour requisite for the preparation of its leaves, a 

 process at present not to be achieved sufficently lucrative beyond 

 its native country or other densely-populated States, such as the 

 North-Western Provinces of India. It is, however, not quite 

 improbable, that the plant would be once an acquisition to 

 the settlers far in the interior, for obtaining independently their 

 own supply of tea, perhaps not so much to save its transit, but 

 rather to avoid its uncertainty. 



The plant ranks fully as an ornamental bush, and affords its 

 first harvest at the third year of growth. It may be midtiplied 

 by seed cuttings or layers, and succeeds best in a loamy soil, but 

 according to other writers, also in a slight stony soil. The in- 

 troduction of Sugar-cane was lately recommended to the 

 colonists. I will not deny that it might be grown here, but it 

 remains questionable whether we can grow it to advantage, 

 except perhaps on our south-eastern frontiers, and on a few 

 other favourable spots. 



The lowest mean temperature ascertained by Humboldt, as 

 requisite for its growth (64° F.), exceeds yet by 5 or 6 degrees 

 the medium heat hitherto fixed for Port Phillip, whilst a tem- 

 perature from 70 — 77° is stated to be necessary for its pro- 

 fitable cultivation. The very fact, that North European Cerealia 

 are grown advantageously in Victoria, seems to preclude the 

 possibility of a lucrative culture of Sugar-cane in this country. 



Adverting to another and not less important part of our 

 subject, the introduction on a larger scale of ornamental and 

 useful trees, we find a field equally fertile and extensive open 

 for our operations. Amongst the endless number of forest- 

 trees, which we should desire to call henceforth our own, the 

 oaks are entitled prominently to our consideration. 



According to a celebrated Mexican traveller, the late Prof. 

 Liebmann, of Copenhagen,* more than 250 species of Oaks, 

 chiefly from the northern hemisphere, have been discovered, 

 and he points to the remarkable circumstance of their absence 

 in Australia and extra-tropical South America, notwithstanding 

 the occurrence of beeches hi these parts of the world, with 

 which they are often consociated in the north. 



The Sunda Islands possess 37 species of oaks, Japan 20, 

 India 21, South Europe 14, but a much larger number than 

 this aggregate inhabits North and Central America ; of these 



* America's Ege-vegetation (Copenhagen, 1851), Wallieh in Hooker's Kew 

 Miscellany IV. 321. 



