THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN FLORA. 131 
and Neurachnes. This almost entire want of herbaceous plants is com- 
pensated, however, by an endless profusion of bushes and small trees. 
Here is the especial source of those plants which for some dozen years 
past have been the ornament of our green-houses. The general im- 
pression produced by this district is nevertheless not an agreeable one. 
Heath-like foliage, or vertically-placed leaves, crowd about mossy com- 
pactly grown spherical bushes, or but sparingly conceal the nakedness 
of long rods which jut out from hideously lanky bushes. The prevailing 
colour of the leaves is a dead blue-green, but in this respect Nature lays 
little restriction upon herself, the Rhagodia bearing white leaves, other 
bushes brownish-red; the most conspicuous, because in such com- 
pany the most unnatural, being the lively May-green of Cassia and San- 
talum.  Pinnate or otherwise divided foliage is rare; the only example 
that I can remember is a species of Cassia. In other respects, the 
greatest possible variety is found among the rigid leaves, from rotundo- 
ovate, through the lanceolate form, to the mere bristle; from the most 
dense crowding, through every possible shade, to the bare leafless twig. 
Moreover, plants belonging to very different families coincide so com- 
pletely in habit, that only flowers or fruit afford a safe criterion. The 
bushes and trees of the Scrub regions are of very different heights ; 
many species of Hucalyptus rivalling those of the fertile land. 
One variety of these forest distriets is distinguished by the colonists 
under the name of * Pine-forests." Except the frequent recurrence 
in such places of the Callitris (“ Pine" of the colonists), I should 
scarcely be able to point out any characteristic which would distinguish 
the Flora of the Pine-forests from that of other Scrubs. The Callitris 
itself never forms a wood ; it grows always singly, intermixed with the 
Scrub, and I have never met with it as the predominant tree. 
The ** Sand-plains " are more evidently distinct from the true Scrub. 
The brush-wood of these districts does not reach to the height of a 
man, and although differing but little in habit from the other Scrub 
districts, it nevertheless continually afforded me new species. In the 
bills and in the western plains such tracts are very rare; in the east 
they form a principal constituent of the Murray Scrub. ; 
It will readily be understood that transitions are to be Paid E 
between the two forms of vegetation—that of the Grass-land and that 
of the Serub ; for example, as above stated, there are found intermixed 
the forms usually occurring in the vegetation of driod-up water-courses, 
