EEPOKT OP THE GOVEENMENT BOTANIST. 
Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, 
25th June, 1855. 
Sib, 
I do myself the honor of transmitting for communication to His 
Excellency the Governor my Third General Report. 
Having received, in October, 1854, His Excellency’s sanction for a 
more extensive phytologic exploration of the Australian Alps, I left for Gipps’ 
Land on the 1st of November, 1854. 
Whilst travelling along the hanks of the La Trohe River and the 
Avon, I had ample opportunities for convincing myself that an extensive 
tract of that country, on account of the fertility of its soil, the mildness 
of its climate, and the facility of clearing land there for agiiculture, is 
undoubtedly destined to become, when the internal communication there has 
been more facilitated, the abode of a large and prosperous population. 
Proceeding along the ranges of the Avon, which are generally barren, 
scrubby, and in many places densely timbered, I ascended Mount Wellington, 
the most southern summit of the Australian Alps, on the( ^2n(^ Novembcr, 
1854, from whence I added some highly interesting plants to our botanical 
collections. At the elevation of about 4000 feet above the sea level, or at a 
subalpine altitude, a striking change is perceptible in the vegetation, since the 
valleys and plateaus, stretching from Mount AVellington to the north, and 
more or less westerly and easterly, are well saturated with moisture, both 
fr'om the attraction of clouds, and from the dissolving snow, which, lying 
there for many months in the year, has given to these locahties the appellation 
of “ The Snowy Plains.” 
The route thus followed is the most practicable for penetrating from 
this part of Gipps’ Land into the central mountains of the Alps, although an 
easier access yet may be found to them from Omeo, by following the generally 
grassy ranges to the ‘westward from a few miles above the jimction of the 
Livingstone River with the Mitta Mitta. 
Proceeding on a second journey along the Darga, which flows through 
some luxuriantly grassed recesses of the mountains, I advanced through a 
difficult country to the Bogong Range, the culminating point of the westerly 
systema of the Snowy Mountains ; a dense scrub, and the total absence of 
water on the crest of the Wentworth Ranges, rendering the progress tedious, 
until I reached the Dividing Range towards the sources of the Cabongra, 
where again the feature of the country changes on the northern slopes of the 
mountains, or along the sources of the Murray tributaries. Here open valleys 
give access to the central ranges in almost every direction, and a profusion of 
Botant. — b . 
