II HOBART AND THE MIDLANDS 59 



large Gum-trees and Sassafras gave place to stunted 

 Myrtle-trees covered with grey lichens, which in 

 some ways reminded me more of the European 

 forests than anything I have seen at the Antipodes. 

 To correct this impression, however, we came here 

 upon the wonderful Grass-tree {Richea pandani- 

 folia), which is confined to Tasmania and is only 

 found on the southern and western ranges. This 

 curious tree resembles a palm; the stem shoots 

 up twenty or thirty feet and frequently branches 

 at the top, while from the ends of the branches 

 a fine cluster of broad palm-like leaves spreads out. 

 An unbranching tree is shown in the foreground 

 of Fig. 25 (p. 98), while some fine full-grown 

 specimens are presented in Fig. 17. 



The exposed plateau upon the top of the Harz 

 range resembles in its vegetation the plateau of 

 Mount Wellington ; indeed it seems that these 

 elevated and exposed greenstone tablelands sup- 

 port a typical vegetation, since much the same 

 kind of growth is met with again upon the summits 

 of the tiers in the lake district, and on the isolated 

 greenstone massive of Ben Lomond in the north- 

 east of the island. 



To return to the summit of Mount Wellington, 

 from which our view of the Harz Mountains led 

 us to digress, we may mention some of the plants 

 which grow upon the extensive plateau. The 

 vegetation is extremely stunted and one can walk 

 over it much in the same wav as one walks over 

 a grouse moor at home. Dwarf Tea-trees, Hakea 



