OF THE INTERIOR OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 243 
SOME NOTEWORTHY POINTS AS TO THE CONNECTIONS OF 
THE Desert FLORA. 
A. Connection between the West Australian Desert and 
New Guinea*. 
Exclusive of widely diffused genera of Grasses and Sedges, 
57 phanerogamous genera of the desert are also found in New 
Guinea. Of these: 
3 only (Kennedya, Styphelia, and Banksia) are absolutely 
restricted to Australia and New Guinea; they are all 
represented in the desert, but the species are not 
identical. 
2 genera (Grevillea, Xerotes) are restricted to Australia, New 
Guinea, and New Caledonia, while Arthropodium is found 
in New Zealand as well ; all the desert species are different 
from those of New Guinea. 
2 genera (Olearia, Pimelea) occur in New Zealand as well as 
in Australia and New Guinea; but the former of these 
should more properly be merged into the widely distributed 
genus Aster. 
2 more (Vittadinia and Muehlenbeckia) are native in America, 
as well as in Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand. 
Of the 57 genera 40 have a more or less wide range in the 
Old World outside Australia; while 7 of them (Commersonia, 
Baeckia, Melaleuca, Eucalyptus, Stylidium, Scevola, and Casua- 
rina) are pre-eminently Australian. 
The above 57 genera have 124 New Guinea species, of which 
only 20 are confined to Australia and New Guinea, while 48 
others which occur in Australia are also of more or less wide 
extra-Australian distribution. 
Only 11 species are common to the West Australian desert 
and New Guinea, viz. :— 
Polanisia viscosa, Ionidium enneaspermum, Tribulus terrestris, 
Oxalis corniculata, Drosera indica, Melothria maderaspatana, 
Eucalyptus terminalis, Gnaphalium luteo-album, Wahlenbergia 
* Bibliography: Baron Mueller’s ‘Descriptive Notes on Papuan Plants.’ 
The same writers ‘Record of Observations on Sir William MacGregor’s 
Highland Plants from New Guinea. Schumann & Holrung, ‘Die Flora v. 
K. Wilhelms Land.’ 
