Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/65

 from its vicinity to the great central desert) is much less than in the southern districts, so that the vegetation consists of hard, rigid plants and shrubs, interspersed with salt bushes. The latter render the Murray deserts eminently fitted for depasturing sheep, as this salt herbage and the dry soil effectually save the sheep from all the diseases to which they are subject in the south. The Mallee scrub is formed by dwarf Eucalypti, growing in dense masses, between which are intermingled the pine, a kind of Callitris, which yields the Sandaroo gum. In other parts of the wilderness Acaciæ prevail, and are known by the name of "myall scrub." The most useful indigenous fruit-tree, the native peach, quandang (Furanus acuminatus), belongs to this part of the country. Ornamental shrubs, some of them of the most brilliant description, are numerous.

The coast tract, as well as the greater part of Gipp's Land, assumes entirely the physical characters of Tasmania. Some of the plains along the coast, westward, near Port Fairy for example, boast of the richest soil in the country. Other parts are low, and subject to inundation, and in these are found the native tea-tree, which it is almost impossible to extirpate. Large tracts of heath are also found, and at intervals, especially at Wilson's Promontory, and the eastern part of Gipp's Land, reaches of shifting sand extend continuously for miles. Picturesque bluffs of carboniferous sandstone occur on the coast beyond Western Port, and at Wilson's Promontory.