13 
In acknowledgment of the aid experienced during this journey by J. Patr 
Murray, Esq., the Police Magistrate of Eden, I attached the name of this gentleman to a 
Panax of palm-like habit, found near Twofold Bay, resembling, with its branchless slender 
stems 60-80 feet long, and its short terminal rami'fications and small crown of leaves, 
almost a Cocos palm, and fonning one of the most graceful trees of Australia, probably 
destined to introduce a new magnificent feature into the landscape of our gardens. 
The occun-ence of many tropical plants in the most south-east portion of the 
colony testifies to the mildnes.s of its climate, to which I had occasion to refer already in 
my report issued in 1854. Large Fig trees (Ficus aspera), Stephania hemandifolia, 
Omalanthus populifolius, Cupania xylocarpa, Rubus acerifolius, Sponia velutina, Asplenium 
Nidus, and Adiantum hi.spidulum, were either noticed within or near the boundaries of the 
colony south of the 37th parallel; whilst in Disemma cocciuea and Euporaatia laurina we 
observe imexpectedly within Victoria, extending to an equally far southern latitude, the 
types of the otherwise almost exclusively tropical families of Anonaceae and Passifloreae. 
That tlie Eupomatia in these localities attains a height of 40 feet may be regarded as a mark 
of the vigor of the vegetation; fronds of Asplenium Nidus were seen in an equal degree of 
luxuriance, exceeding the length of 6 feet. The spurious Australian Apple tree (Angophora 
intermedia), the Bloodwood tree (Eucatyptus corymbosa), the Woollybutt (Eucalyptus 
Woollsiana), and species of Dendrobium (Deudrobium speciosum and Dendrobium Milli- 
ganii) exist in Victoria also only in these mo.st distant regions, as the scattered outposts 
of main mas.ses of plants of Ea.stern Australia. A list of all the plants discovered in the 
colony during the year 1860 is appended to tliis document. This list contains also for 
the first time an enumeration of some of the Victorian Fungi. On the examination of 
these the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, F.R.S., has brought to bear his unparalleled knowledge of 
this order of plants. Or/^ / 
The latter part of the month of December was devoted to a journey into the 
south-western parts of the Australian Alps, principally for the pui-pose of extending the 
botanical survey into these regions. Since previously no travellers had penetrated to this 
part of the country, it may perhaps not be deemed unimportant to furni.sh a succinct 
account of my journey. Having brought my equipment to Good Hope Creek, I was 
induced to relinquish the further use of horses in a country promising in the progress of 
my journey but little or nothing for their sustenance, and seeing ranges before me, so 
broken and scrubby that, without tracks being cut, even a pedestrian often cannot force 
hi-s way onward. After a consultation with Mr. Gladman, to whom the credit is due of 
having, during his difficult pro.specting journeys, first of all mapped a considerable portion 
of the country between the Baw Baw mountains and the La Trobe River and its tributaries, 
I started on the 23rd December from Good Hope Creek, accompanied by Messrs. John 
Rus.sell, John Hamilton, William Randell, Robert Morrison, and Louis Quaas, traversed the 
ranges adjacent to the rivers Tyers and Tangil on a generally northerly and finally north- 
easterly course, and crossed and recrossed the above-named northern main tributaries of the 
La Trobe River, the former rising in the valleys immediately north of the Baw Baw moun- 
tains, skirting their eastern extremity and flowing through a deep gorge which separates 
the Baw Baw ranges from Mount Useful, wliilst the Tangil takes its origin on the southern 
slopes of these mountains in alpine elevations. In our progress over the ranges, which are 
chiefly timbered with Stringybark trees and a species of White Gum tree, we encountered 
much impediment by the density of the scrub, the tough-branched CoiTtea ferruginea being 
particularly obstructive to our march, until in gratlual advance to the higher regions the 
underwood of the lower mountains recedes before the colder temperature, ^it being uni- 
versally observed in our Alps, that at elevations above 4000 feet the dense scrubs chiefly 
on the sea-side slopes of our ranges either vanish or greatly diminish. 
After having descended into the main valley of the Upper Tangil, a beautiful 
mountain torrent, which rolls its waters with impetuosity over the granite boulders of its 
No. 19, d. 
