146 DB. FEBD. MULLEB's BOTANIC Ali BEPOBT 



mauy of the southern tracts of Australia. Dew and occasional 

 showers of rain renew, even to some extent, the grasses in the 

 cooler season, more particularly in localities denuded by bush-fires. 

 It would lead beyond the limits of this document to contemplate 

 the botany of the country in its full details, but I may sketch the 

 principal distinctive features of the vegetation, which in a com- 

 prehensive view can be divided into the following groups : 

 1. Plants of the dense coast-forests. 



.2. „ of the Brigalow scrub. 



.3. „ of the open downs. 



: 4. „ of the desert. 



' . 



6. „ of the sandstone table-land. 



6. „ of the sea-coast. 



7. „• of the bants and valleys of rivers. 



The first division, designated by the colonists the brushwood or 

 cedar coimtry, is characterized prominently by a great variety of 

 umbrageous trees, chiefly of an Indian type. These forests oc- 



ranges 



degr 



on the decomposition of schistaceous rocks. The monotony of 

 Ettcalyptus here gives way to trees of the meliaceous, cedrelaceous, 

 sapindaceous, euphorbiaceous, celastrinaceous, rubiaceous, and lau- 

 rineous orders, intermixed with Acronychia, Casfanospermumj JEry- 

 thrina, Ficus, Eupomatia, and trees of other genera, often inter- 

 rupted by a vast prevalence of noble Araucarias, matted together 

 into an impervious thicket by Hones of Calamus^ of asclepiadeous, 

 apocynaceous, convolvulaceous, menispermaceous, and ampelideous 

 plants^ and harbouring in their shade numerous parasitical orchids 

 and ferns. 





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2. The Brigalow scrub, peculiar apparently to a rather argil- 

 laceous sandstone, stretches in East Australia over the elevated 

 plains west of the coast range as far north as Newcastle range ; 

 and some of its plants transgress even the elevations which se- 

 parate the waters of the east coast from those of the Gulf ot 



Carpentaria 



typical 

 shrubs or small trees of Cmmmns. Pittosporum 



di*ony TripJiasia glauca, Oeijera, JBrachychiton^ Cassia, Acacia, 

 orum. Ckmthium, Ehretia. Bauhmia HooJceri and Bauhinia 

 ^PW'hA^i^^olw leptomerioides, Delabechea rupesfris, and pnu- 

 cipally Eremophila MttcTielU and Strzeleckia dissosperma. Euca- 



^IfP^h ofe 9? considerable size, are dispersed through, t^e Bngalow 

 scrab,: , Wl iodifimfcion of this botamcal feature of the cQuntri 





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