BOTANICAL INFORMATION. ; 313 
of the White-gum forests, and in the richest grassy country, where the 
rocks are all granite. The vegetation which they present is peculiar, 
and several plants grow on them which I have seen nowhere else. To 
the north I detected a fine Centaurea, or plant allied to that genus: 
the flowers are rose-coloured, and as large as those of Carduus arvensis ; 
also a beautiful Leguminosa and several Grasses. East from the grassy 
districts, and about the same meridian of longitude with the Wangan 
Hills, the country is in many places so thick of scrub, that horses could 
scarcely penetrate it, and again for miles without a plant, even of grass. 
We passed the beds of several salt-water lakes, which were but recently 
dried, and on their banks grew many plants allied to Chenopodium ; 
also a curious dicecious Malvacea, the first instance I have ever noticed 
where a species of this Order has the male and female inflorescence 
separate; two Grevilleas with scarlet flowers, new to me, and two 
Hakeas. One of the latter is a small tree, with leaves like your H. 
platycarpa, but much longer and stronger, and terminating in sharp 
thorns, altogether a most formidable species: it has fine yellow flowers, 
and upon it grew a new Loranthus. The foliage of the other Hakea is 
silvery, striated, and lanceolate, and it produces upright spikes of crim- 
son flowers, excelling those of any other species in beauty; as yet I 
have only seen it three times. Iam sorry to remark that your figure 
of H. platycarpa, in the * Icones Plantarum,’ is drawn from imperfect 
and small specimens, and which do not exhibit the peculiar character 
in the hooked solitary spine, which springs from both sides of the 
capsule. In the same district a noble Hucalyptus abounded, which 
eclipses even your Æ. macrocarpus ; its flowers are crimson and golden- 
yellow, and freely produced on plants which have not attained half the 
full stature of 12-15 feet high. Sometimes these charming blossoms 
vary with pale red and white; they hang in profusion from the tips of 
the branches. 
Near our first bivouac I gathered a singular Orchideous plant, hav- 
ing the hinged lower lip of Drakea ; only three plants could be detected 
in flower, and one of them I have put into spirits, as you directed. 
Our present mode of travelling is not favourable for collecting Orchidee, 
which require close investigation of particular spots in order to detect 
them, and the same may be said of Cryptogamia, though I discovered 
several Charas, which will go home in this set of plants. I also found 
specimens of the gigantic fungus previously described, nA I dried 
VOL. v. x 
