122 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



I was amused to find that the miners call this 

 shrub by its proper name of ' Fagus ', whereas 

 the other Beech of Tasmania is everywhere called 

 quite erroneously ' Myrtle '. I can only put this 

 down to the fact that whereas the ' Myrtle ' is 

 found all over Tasmania and received its name 

 early from the ordinary settlers, the ' Fagus ' is 

 only met with by prospectors and men of some 

 scientific interests, who frequent the mining dis- 

 tricts in the west ; indeed their influence has 

 had a similar effect in the naming of the mountains, 

 in which the memories of Darwin, Huxley, Owen, 

 Tyndall, and Sedgwick are preserved. 



Just as the Evergreen Beech of Tasmania has 

 its counterpart in the temperate forests of South 

 America, so the deciduous form is represented by 

 a close ally in that continent. This is only one 

 more instance of the close connexion existing 

 between the characteristically temperate fauna 

 and flora of Tasmania and South America, a sub- 

 ject which will be considered more fully in the 

 next chapter. 



Scarcely less interesting than the deciduous 

 Beech, an important element in the scrub on the 

 top of Mount Read is supplied by two coniferous 

 shrubs, one of which (Pherosphaera hooJceriana) is 

 the sole representative of its genus and is con- 

 fined to this and similar situations in Tasmania. 

 This thickly growing shrub attains a height of 

 eight or nine feet ; its leaves are rather large 

 and prickly for the Yew tribe (Taxineae), to 



