EUCALYPTUS TBEES. . 191 



ing the midst of Summer. At five thousand feet 

 the vegetation of shrubs generally commences, and 

 up to this height ascend two Euealypts, Eucalyptus 

 coriaceae and Gunnii, forming dense and extensive 

 thickets ; E. coriaceae assuming, however, in lower 

 valleys, huge dimensions. Both these, with most of 

 our alpine plants, . would deserve transplanting to 

 middle Europe, and to other countries of the 

 temperate zone, where they would well cope with 

 the vicissitudes of the climate. In Tasmania, the 

 Winter snow-line sinks considerably lower, and in its 

 moister clime many alpine plants descend there along 

 the torrents and rivulets to the base of the mountains 

 which here are constantly clinging to cold elevations. 

 Mount "William is the only sub-alpine height isolated 

 in Victoria from the great complex of gpowy mount- 

 ains, but it produces, beyond Eucalyptus alpina, and 

 Pultensea rosea, which are confined to the crest of that 

 royal mountain, only Celmisia longifolla and little else 

 as the mark of an alpine or rather subalpine flora. 

 Celmisia also is one of the fSw representatives of cold 

 heights in the Blue Mountains ; and from New Eng- 

 land we know only Scleranthus biflorus, a cushion- 

 like plant, exquisitely adapted for margining garden 

 plots, and Gualtheria hispida, as generally indicating 

 spots on which snow lodges for some of the Winter 

 months. The mountains of Queensland would need 

 in their tropical latitudes a greater height than they 

 possess for nourishing analogous forms of life, but the 

 truly alpine vegetation of the high mountains of Tas- 

 mania contrasts in some important respects with that 

 of the Australian Alps — namely, therein that under 

 the prevalence of a much higher degree of humidity, 



