346 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
three or four feet high, none of the leaves reaching the surface, but the 
male blossoms are raised on footstalks which are straight, while the 
footstalks of the females are spiral so formed, apparently, to enable 
the plant to mature its seeds by following the receding water, which, 
in this arid country, dries up with wonderful rapidity. The other 
species, which has the habit of Arenaria fastigiata, inhabits similar 
places and has both kinds of blossoms sessile. My large collection 
contained a Cerastium very like C. vulgatum, whose narrow bifid petals, 
half as long again as the calyx, will place it in a different section of 
the genus; and I have now got another, which I am unable to dis- 
tinguish from C. semidecandrum. Sometimes I think these species of 
Cerastium, the Erodium cicutarium, and some other plants which assuredly 
were here before the Swan River Settlement was formed, may have 
made their way from Sydney. And it is a striking circumstance that 
the natives allege that the wild cattle, which we had always supposed 
to be the progeny of animals brought by us, come originally from the - 
north-east, and were here before the Settlers came to the Swan. 
The Aborigines assured us that there is no water for four days’ jour- 
ney to the east of Wallemarra, except what is contained in the trunks 
of hollow trees. I examined some curious salt lakes in that direction. 
Tn one I gathered a little annual Cress which was new to me, and three 
shrubby Salicornias. The lake had no outlet, and the parallel terraced 
banks which environed it gave ample evidence that the water in it was 
once much higher than it is now. A fine white-flowered species of 
Rutacee grows on the tops of the granite hills in this direction, also @ 
new purple-flowered Kennedya, of which I send specimens in seed. In 
the natural veins which occur in immense blocks of granite, I noticed 
the splendid scarlet Myrtaceous plant which I have often mentioned. 
Owing to the barrenness of the spots where it occurred, the shrub here 
assumes a ragged stunted appearance, like trees artificially dwarfed | 
by the Chinese, and the plants all seem as old as the rocks whereon they 
grow; but I saw one magnificent specimen, 15 feet high and as much 
broad across the top, completely covered with flowers, which resemble 
those of a Eucalyptus, and are splendid scarlet. The genus is how- 
ever quite distinct from Hucalyptus, by its small silvery leaves and the —— 
form of the petals. On a hill, east of Wallemarra, I found a fine Can- 
dollea, with small silvery foliage and fine yellow flowers: the sepals 
and bracteas which surround the inflorescence are remarkably covered — 
