176 MR. 8. MOORE ON THE FLORA 
and for the obvious reason that the summer and autumn are very 
hot and the air so dry that flowers are then liable to become 
des’ecated. The flowering of plants is also dependent upon the 
chance of rain. I was particularly struck with this fact when 
lar up country, upon coming into some district recently visited 
by a storm, and finding the shrubs in flower there, while in 
neighbouring distriets not so favoured—the storms are usually 
loeal, often extremely so—flowers were not to be seen. Curious, 
too, is the paucity of the flowers, and the rapidity with which 
they dry up, often, to all appearance, before pollination has been 
effected. But this is only one sign of the desperate struggle for 
existence which these tenants of the desert solitudes are forced to 
maintain. Trees and shrubs quite orall but dead are frequent ; 
and it is no exaggeration to say that in some districts, where rain 
las not fallen for a considerable time, fully fifty per cent. of the 
vegetation may be on the verge of destruction. This remark 
applies chiefly to the country north of the thirtieth parallel ; 
south of that line the gum-trees, ever. fresh, no matter how long 
the drought may have lasted, give an entirely different appearance 
to the scene. 
Go where you will, the quantity of vegetation is simply mar- 
vellous, when one bears in mind the extremely small rainfall. 
The best way to obtain a clear idea of this is to climb a low hill, 
or one of the * gnamma " rocks so frequently met with. From 
such a point of view the clearness of the atmosphere enables the 
eye to range over long distances, and one gets the impression of 
a densely afforested country, variegated here and there, perhaps, 
by a glistening salt lake, with perhaps a “ salt-bush ” flat in the 
foreground. Admiring such a scene as this, I thought of the 
Matto Grosso “cerrados,” which have nothing like so much 
shrubby and arboreous vegetation, and scarcely so high an 
average summer temperature, though the quantity of rain which 
falls upon them is ten times as great. This wonderful adapta- 
tion of Australian plants to an extreme climate I shall again refer 
to later on. 
avcrred that in Australia, as elsewhere, a common order of flowering prevails, 
the Orchidea putting forth their blossoms in spring, the Leguminosz in summer, 
and the Composite in autumn, Whether, supposing the order of flowering to 
be as stated, the argument has any value, may be a matter of opinion; the 
point to emphasize here is that, as applicable to the West Australian flora, the 
statement is scarcely borne out by facts. 
