characters, unless the surface of the labellum is taken advan- 

 tage of ; and for such a measure Botanists are hardly yet 

 prepared. Instead, therefore, of speculating upon what may 

 possibly be done hereafter with the genus, we take advantage 

 of the present opportunity to print a sketch of the geogra- 

 phical distribution of New Holland Orchidaceae by the late 

 Allan Cunningham, the well known and lamented New 

 Holland Botanist. 



Notes, for the most part geographical, on the Orchidaceous 

 plants of Australia. By the late Allan Cunningham. 



In viewing the limited number of Orchidaceous plants 

 hitherto observed by Botanists in Australia, and their geo- 

 graphic range on that extraordinary continent, as far as its 

 coasts and internal country are known, I have, in order to 

 account in some measure for the fact of a country, possessing 

 so considerable an extent of intertropical coasts, which as far 

 as temperature goes, may be said to be favourable to the pro- 

 duction of the order, furnishing nevertheless so few of its 

 epiphytic division, been led to consider the general configura- 

 tion of the surface of the country ; the open character gene- 

 rally of its forests ; the attenuated ramification of its preva- 

 lent timbers; and the geological structure of the several 

 coasts and regions in their vicinity— considerations equally 

 referable to Filices and other portions of its cryptogamic vege- 

 tation—the same physical causes, that limit the existence of 

 the one, especially of its Epiphytes, maintaining doubtless 



of the 'other 1106 ™ "^ t0 ^^ &nd diffusion of s P ecies 



\.J^?^ ascertained by Navigators and inland-travel- 

 lers that the highlands of that continent are situated upon or 

 near its shores, and that the most elevated country is upon 

 the eastern coast. There they present a range of mountains 



7™t ^i 7 o G direCti ° n of the meridian, and stretch- 

 ing from Wilson s Promontory on the south (lat. 39°) to about 

 Cape Weymouth of Cook on the north (lat. 12^), exhibit a 

 continuous chain, which has been happily termed, the spine or 

 backbone of the continent. This main range, in some lati- 

 tudes, closely invests the coast-line, whilst in other parallels 

 it retires to some distance from the shore, and there rives 



