190 FOREST CULTURE AND 



and Casuarinas were raised, a vast variety of useful 

 plants could be reared along the water-courses of the 

 more central parts of Australia. Saltbushes, in great 

 variety, stretch far inland, and this is the forage on 

 which flocks so admirably thrive. Probably the ex- 

 tensive Asiatic steppes have to boast of no greater di- 

 versity of salsolaceous plants than our own. Never- 

 theless, even here much could be added to the pro- 

 ductiveness of these pasturages by the introduction of 

 other perennial fodder herbs. Grasses, wherever they 

 occur, are varied, and a large share is perennial, 

 nutritious, and widely diffused. As corroborative, 

 it may be instanced that Anthistiria ciliata, the 

 common kangaroo-grass, almost universally ranges 

 over Australia, and thus also over the central steppes 

 of the continent. It extends, indeed, to' Asia and 

 North Africa also. Besides, through the interior, 

 grasses, especially of Panicum and Andropogon, are 

 numerous, either on the oases, or interspersed with 

 shrubs on barren spots. Festuca or Triodia irritans, 

 the porcupine-grass of the settlers, is restricted to the 

 sandsoftheextra-tropical latitudes ; Festuca or Triodia 

 viscida, chiefly to the sandstone table-lands of the 

 tropics. 



Only in the south-eastern parts of the continent, 

 and in Tasmania, are the mountains rising to alpine 

 elevations. Mount Hotham, in Victoria, and Mount 

 Kosciusko, in New South Wales, form the culminat 

 ing points, each slightly exceeding seven thousand 

 feet in height. In the ravines of these summits 

 lodge perennial glaciers ; at six thousand feet snow 

 remains unmelted for nearly the whole of the year, 

 and snow-storms may occur in these elevations dur- 



