 As early as 1866 Baron Ferdinand Von Mueller, the Government botanist published some astonishing, and probably exaggerated claims of a mountain ash ("Eucalyptus regnans" - monarch of the eucalypts) on the Black's Spur near Healesville being 146.3 metres (480 feet) high.There were reports from nurseryman David Boyle and others of trees in the Yarra Valley, Otways and Dandenong Ranges reaching "half a thousand feet".Edward Snell, civil engineer and surveyor, made one of the earliest reports of hundreds of trees at least 120 metres (400 feet) tall on an overland trip across the Otways Ranges from Forrest to Apollo Bay in 1856.