548 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
_ forests cover the mountains, where they are sheltered from the 
wind, to the height of fifteen hundred feet above the level of the 
sea. The Beech, with Birch-like leaves, predominates there ; 
then comes the Antarctic and Forster’s Beech, accompanied by 
Barberry and Currant bushes. 
At the Hermit’s Isle, the most southerly point of the American 
continent, there is still some arborescent vegetation. Hooker there 
observed eighty-four flowering plants and many Cryptogams. A 
Mushroom found there constitutes the principal aliment of the 
miserable inhabitants of these glacial regions. 
AUSTRALIAN VEGETATION. 
The Australian Flora and Fauna are somewhat different from 
those of any other part of the world. From the state of our 
geological knowledge it does not appear possible that this part of 
the world can be considered contemporary with either of the other 
divisions of the globe. The study of animals and plants of Oceanea 
eads naturalists to the conclusion that these countries belong 
toa later creation than the rest of the earth : that its islands emerged 
from the deep at a period posterior to the continents of Europe, Asia, 
Africa, and America; and it seems to belong to the tertiary or 
secondary epochs. In fact all the Marsupial animals belong to 4 
type of Mammifers inferior to those found in the fossil state in 
Jurassic rocks, and its vegetation presents such anomalies as might 
be expected in the tertiary period more than in that of our days. 
It presents forms more ancient than any other contemporary vege- 
tation. More than nine-tenths of the species found between 33° and 
35° south latitude, in Australia, absolutely belong to these regions. 
They constitute several completely distinct families. Others form 
families which are scarcely represented in any other part of the 
globe. Those even which belong to groups more generally 
diffused, disguise their natural affinities under forms so isolated 
and unlike their congeners, that they have been called the masques 
of the vegetable world. The different species of two genera, 
namely, the Eucalyptus among the Myrrace#, and the Acacia 
among the Lecuminose®, form perhaps, from their number and 
dimension, one half of the vegetation which covers the country — = 
(Fig. 109). Their leaves are reduced to phyllodium. Neither 
