It would lead too far to enumerate the numerous modest, but lovely, or even the more attractive ornamental plants, which will no doubt hereafter contribute to adorn the gardens here and at home. Still, in a general sketch of our vegetation, I ought not to pass unmentioned, in this regard, the magnificent Grevillea Victoriæ: the splendid parasite of the Fern tree, Basileophyta Friderici Augusti, on which the name of the royal botanist has been bestowed; and the grand Corræa Latrobeana,-three of the most gorgeous plants discovered during my last expedition.

In accordance with his Excellency's instructions, a collection of dried specimens of plants has been commenced for the Government. This Herbarium will be at all times accessible to the public, and will hereafter contribute, I trust, to diffuse, more and more knowledge of our vegetable world, and excite lovers of natural science to assist in my investigations. I began to form, at the same time, a similar collection for the Roval Gardens at Kew.

I am happy to report that the Botanic Gardens are in a very prosperous state, and that the establishment does great honour to the able management of its superintendent. The addition of a large greenhouse, which his Excellency has been pleased to sanction, upon the recommendation of the committee, will be most useful as a receptacle for tropical productions; and a considerable piece of ground has been prepared, this year, to rear all the seeds which have lately been collected for the garden, of which were liberally presented.

The committee deemed it also desirable that an iron foot-bridge for crossing the Yarra should be procured from home, to afford an easier access to the garden for the inhabitants of the eastern part of Melbourne; and by this means the number of visitors -already (chiefly on Sundays) very considerable-will, doubtless, greatly increase.

I trust, therefore, that the Botanic Gardens, as an establishment so desirable for the diffusion of knowledge, for the experimental introduction of foreign plants into our adopted country, or for multiplying the treasures which our own Flora offers, and as a healthy locality for recreation, will continue to receive the support of the Government and the Legislature; and I hope that, by still further extending the communications of this establishment with the Botanical Gardens of other countries, we shall succeed in keeping pace with the general advance of this great and flourishing country.” I have the honour to be,

The Honourable

The Colonial Secretary.

Sir,
Your most obedient and humble Servant,
DR. FERDINAND MUELLER,

Government Botanist.

[Then follows a systematic Index of the Plants of Victoria, which were collected and examined between September 1852 and August 1853, by Dr. Ferdinand Mueller, Government Botanist, as referred to in the foregoing report. This Index is placed in the Appendix to the present paper, see page 186.]

Enclosure 2 in No. 5.

Encl. 2 in No. 5.

SIR,

VICTORIA.-BOTANICAL REPORT of WILLIAM SWAINSON, Esq., F. R. S.
Tirhatuan, 2nd October, 1853.

I do myself the honor of laying before your Excellency, in the enclosed papers, the result of my botanical investigations in this province.

My chief attention, for the first five months after being located here, was directed to the family of Eucalyptida, or Gum Trees, among which I have discovered five distinct and well-marked genera, hitherto unknown as such, and apparently peculiar to Victoria; together with two other new genera, which occur also in the adjacent province.

Having had no accommodation for arranging the different species for comparison, &c., I have been necessitated to pack them up as fast as collected. It is quite impossible, therefore, for me to state, with any degree of certainty, the number of new species contained in the above genera. The packets of dried specimens, seeds, and capsules, will be seen to form a grand total of 1520. I am therefore disposed to think, that even if twothirds may hereafter prove varieties only, there will yet remain more than 500 species, botanically distinct, only two or three of which I have found in New South Wales.

My researches, in respect to timber trees (from causes already well known), have been quite unsuccessful. The Red Gum (Canthocarpus, La.), and the straight Stringy Bark (Tricanthus La.), are the only genera I have found whose wood is useful either for sawing or splitting. Specimens of the former (of an unknown species) have been procured and sent to the curator. The latter, of which there are numberless species, and a few of that of Microcarpus, or Native Box, are mostly used for fencing.

No reasonable doubt, however, can be entertained, that other parts of the province are more productive than this seems to be of valuable timber; and as the colonial botanist has had the requisite facilities at his disposal for ascertaining this fact during his extensive excursions, he will doubtless have succeeded far better than myself in developing the economical properties of the Victoria timber trees.

During the last year I have made various attempts and experiments to discover the principles of variation amongst the Cassuarina, vulgarly called He and She Oaks, but

which in reality are the true Pines of Australia. It was only in June last, however, that this discovery was effected, and the conviction then arrived at that all the descriptions now existing were perfectly and essentially defective, and therefore quite useless; and that this and the genus Exocarpus are the most extraordinary groups of trees yet discovered in Australia. Without being further tedious (as I intend to bring this discovery before the public in another shape), I shall merely state to your Excellency, that the facts I am prepared to bring forward will establish the following propositions :

1. That the Australian Pines belong more to a very remote or primeval Flora than to the present.

2. That they are slowly, but surely, disappearing from the face of the earth, and giving place to that comparatively recent order of vegetables which springs up in their stead. In this respect they offer a wonderful analogy to what we have ourselves witnessed in regard to the aboriginal tribes of Australia now giving place to those of the Caucasian race.

Now, of this remarkable tribe I have succeeded in determining more than two hundred species, all still growing within a very short distance of this place, besides having met with several others in different stages of decay, but which, from their bark and other indications, convince me were different from all those I have met with in a growing state. They have, in fact, died from excessive age, and have left no successors.

In the accompanying paper is a list of all the species found by me up to the end of the last month, and an abundance of cones of nearly all these have been collected and sent to the curator of the botanic garden. These your Excellency may now cause to be distributed and made known over the whole civilised world: and thus the botanical garden would probably receive from those established at the Cape, Rio de Janeiro, Calcutta, Ceylon, &c., &c., more rare and costly plants, in exchange, than would fill five such conservatories as that now building in Melbourne.

I should also suggest, that as most of the species are handsome, and many beautiful, growing trees, half an acre or so of ground be appropriated for a seed bed, by which a large number of young plants might be raised, ready to transplant into the projected shrubberies round the Government House, and to distribute among such private individuals as may wish to possess some few examples of these aborigines of the vegetable world.

To establish these discoveries upon the most solid basis, I have given up nearly a month of my engagement with the Tasmanian Government, for, without having laboured, I may say truly, both day and night, for the last three months, I could not have brought the matter to such an unquestionable issue. Without taking two much credit to myself, I feel satisfied that those discoveries will be regarded with as much surprise and almost incredulity amongst the botanists of Europe, as was that of gold in Australia among the geologists of Britain.

Of all those named in the list I possess elaborate descriptions, partly written with the trees before me, and finished before the cones had opened, and thus lost their specific characters. As there exists no scientific society or other medium for publishing an essay on these trees in Melbourne, I think the Royal Tasmanian Society (of which I am an honorary member) will gladly do so in their own transactions.

I have, &c., (Signed)

WILLIAM SWAINSON, F.R.S.

To His Excellency, the Lieutenant Governor, &c., &c., &c.,

SCHEDULE of the BOTANICAL COLLECTIONS made by MR. SWAINSON, for the Victoria Government, and delivered to the Curator of the Botanic Garden, Melbourne.

EUCALYPTIDE.

I. Dried Specimens of the Sprigs in separate papers, the different genera (all new), or
the principal divisions of the family, marked on each. These, altogether, amount
to five hundred and sixty-four, and are arranged in four distinct series, as under :
1st Series. Marked with single numbers, and to which the drawings refer,
in all

2nd Series. Alphabetically numbered from A 1 to A 12
3rd Series. The number enclosed in a circle, thus (1)

68

297

160

4th Series. Species growing on the Government domain, the respective num-
bers corresponding to those marked on the trees

39

564

VICTORIA.

II. Species and Varieties contained in small paper bags, labelled as above, each containing
Capsules, Leaves, and (where procurable) Seeds and Buds. These together amount
to nine hundred and thirty, and are arranged in the above manner, viz :—
1st Series. With single numbers

2nd Series. Alphabetical, A 1 to A 12

3rd Series. In a circle (1)

4th Series. From the Government domain

33

167

691

39

930

III. Papers of Sprigs (and separate ones), of the Capsules, &c., collected on the Blue Mountains, New South Wales

Total of Species and Varieties

A series of large bags and tin cases, numbered and named, of all the species of Cas-
suarina examined and determined from 26th July to 29th September (a few
separate packets of unexamined species)

A series of large bags and tin cases of my new genus Echinocarpus, or Grass Pines,
numbered and named

Grand Total of Species and Varieties

DRAWINGS.

201

21

222

1732

Two Portfolios, with Drawings and Dissections, natural size and magnified, of different species and genera of Eucalyptide. Notes to the above.

30th September, 1853.

(Signed)

WILLIAM SWAINSON, F.R.S.

P. S. A small packet of seeds of the finest timber trees of Illawarra.

Having had no convenience for opening and sorting the New South Wales collections, that portion intended for the Victoria Government will be sent from Hobart Town, where every accommodation I require is promised.

(Signed)

The drawings will be personally delivered to the Curator before I leave Melbourne.

W. S.

LIST of SPECIES of CASSUARINE, or AUSTRALIAN PINES, discovered, named, and described by Mr. SWAINSON, and of which Seeds and Cones (mostly in abundance) have been collected for the Victoria Government.

All these must

N.B.-In several instances different species and numbers appear under the same specific name. therefore be considered provisionary, and arose from not keeping a memorandum of the names I had already used. Without a single book to refer to, I have been obliged to leave several of the latter species unnamed (although described), from having exhausted all the specific names I can think of that were at all applicable to the species.— (Signed) W.S.

(1) The valves having opened before this was described, it remains an unknown species.

(2) I doubt if this is the same as the former bearing this name, but I had no access to that while describing this.
(3) These latter all found on the Round Hill Range, on Mr. Bailby's Run, 7th October, 1853.—(Signed) W. SWAINSON.

VICTORIA.

VICTORIA..

Encl. 3 in No. 5.

Enclosure 3 in No. 5.

FIRST REPORT of the Mineralogical Surveyor.

REPORT on the Geology and Mineralogy of Mount Alexander and the adjacent country lying between the Rivers Loddon and Campaspe.

The whole of the above district is occupied by four different Geological formations, viz. :

1. Granite.

2. Metamorphosed Palæozoic Rocks.

3. Basalt.

4. Auriferous Drift.

The extent of country occupied by the three first of the above formations may be seen by the accompanying tracing of the map on which the boundaries are laid down by compass bearings. The fourth is more or less universally distributed over the area occupied by the second.,

1. GRANITE. This rock everywhere forms an open forest country, consisting of high rocky ranges and undulating grassy hills. Enormous blocks, standing out in bold relief, lie scattered on the summits and flanks of the hil's, often affording the most picturesque scenery. These blocks are always in situ, and are the result of the decomposition of the surrounding softer portions of the rock. It is for the most part a coarse grained ternary granite (quartz, feldspar, and mica), often very soft, friable, and easily decomposed. In some few places it passes into pegmatite, a compound of quartz and feldspar.

The granite frequently possesses a largely spheroidal or concretionary structure, composed of concentric coats, and the whole being traversed by a system of N. and S. and E. and W. joints, causes it to break up into large rectangular blocks or slabs, with slightly convex and concave faces. These blocks afford a good and easily quarried building material.

Numerous "Elvans" or Dykes occur, cutting through the granite in various directions, in long narrow bands. They are generally composed of a hard, compact, and very fine grained granite, and are evidently of posterior formation to the mass of the granite. They do not appear, as is often the case in other countries, to be accompanied by metalliferous veins. I have been unable to discover metalliferous veins of any description in the granite, and from the general homogeneous character of the rock, and the entire absence in it of quartz veins, I should not anticipate the discovery of gold or other metals, either in the rock itself or in the drifts derived from it.

2. METAMORPHOSED PALEOZOIC STRATA.-Surrounding the above granitic district on all sides, except to the south-west, where the granite is overlaid by the lava plains of the Loddon, we have a mass of metamorphosed palæozoic strata, striking everywhere nearly true N. and S., and dipping E. and W. at angles varying from 45° to vertical.

These strata, the whole of them aqueous sedimentary deposits, consist of, interstratified, in thick and thin beds, -1. Ferruginous, micaceous, and feldspathic sandstones and grits of various shades of red, brown, and yellow. 2. Hard and soft arenaceous and feldspathic clay, slates, and fine arenaceous banded flagstones. 3. Quartz rock and fine grained quartz conglomerate.

The country occupied by these rocks consist chiefly of bold, rocky, scrubby ranges and gullies, thickly timbered, and of more openly timbered flats. The highest points of the ranges are almost always immediately adjoining the granite boundary. This is a very marked feature, the junction of the granite and metamorphic rocks being almost invariably at the base or on the flanks of a steep rocky range. The paleozoic strata everywhere, for a short distance from the granite, exhibits traces of alteration, being generally harder, more compact, crystalline, and micaceous, but very rarely passing into true mica schist.

The whole mass of these sandstones, grits, clay, slates, &c., is traversed by an intense N. and S. cleavage, as well as by a system of larger joints striking both N. and S. and E. and W., the former generally dipping at right angles or in an opposite direction to the planes of cleavage. This system of joints and cleavage renders the true lines of stratification or original deposition very obscure. They appear, however, generally to coincide with the cleavage, but for the most part are dipping at a somewhat lower angle, which can only be detected on a close and very careful examination.

Coincident with the cleavage, both in strike and dip, and more or less numerous throughout the whole of the paleozoic strata I have examined, are veins of white and reddish ferruginous quartz, from a few inches to six or seven feet in thickness. Coating the joints and fissures in some of the larger veins, we often find much red hæmatitic iron In the quartz, occurring in nests and cavities, I have found1. Gold.

ore.

2. Galena, in very small quantities.

3. Blende (Sulphuret of Zinc.)

4. Arsenical Iron.

5. White Iron-Pyrites.

I have heard of Platina having been found, but I have not seen any.