138 DH. FEED. MULLEll's BOTANICAL REPORT 



only the nature of the vegetation, but also the range of its species. 

 I beg further to observe, that I include in the following remarks 

 all those plants which, during momentary interruptions of the 

 voyage to the Victoria River, we were enabled to collect on the 

 islands on the N.E. coast, as well as those obtained during our 

 stay at Moreton Bay. 



The plants thus accumulated illustrate, I think, almost completely 

 the flora of Arnhem's Land, w^ith the exception of the northern 

 part, where it -seems bamboo-groves and many other features of 

 the Indian vegetation exclusively exist. They comprise further a 

 nearly perfect flora of the Victoria River and its vicinity, as also 

 of the dividing table-land or ranges between North Australia and 

 the interior, less completely the vegetation of the north-western 

 interior (as far as long. 20° 18' south, and lat. 127° 30' east), 

 which may be considered as part of the flora of Central Australia. 

 The collections formed during the last part of the expedition 

 illustrate to a considerable extent the vegetation of the country 

 around the south-west, south, and south-east part of the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria, more or less remote from the coast, and finally the 

 plants of the eastern tropical and subtropical parts of New Hol- 

 land. My observations extend consequently from Point Pearce 

 (the most northern place visited on the mainland in lat. 14° 30' 

 south) to Termination Lake (our last position south-west, in lat. 

 20° 18' south, and long. 127° 30' east), and north-east as far as the 

 lower part of the Gilbert River (in lat. 17° 15' south, and long. 

 141° 20' east) and south-east as far as Moreton Bay (lat. 27° 30', 

 long. 153° 20' east). Additions to the plants from these tracts of 

 country form those procured on the islands of North-east Australia 

 (from lat. 15° to 10° 45' south) ; and although the collections from 

 these localities are very limited in land plants, they are of some 

 value, as throwing light upon the phycology of that part of the globe. 



In arriving at the conclusions advanced in the following pages, 

 I availed myself of E. Brown's general remarks, appended to 

 * Flinders' s Voyage,' and to Sturt's work on ' Central Australia;' 

 of Allan Cunningham's appendix to King's 'Intertropical Survey of 

 Australia;' of the botanical notes scattered through Sir Thomas 

 Mitchell's work on ' Tropical Australia,' and through Leichhardt's 

 ' Overland-Expedition ;' and of Carron's ' Narrative of Kennedy's 

 Expedition.' Besides these works, Mr. Brown's and DeCandoUe's 

 ' Prodromi ' are almost the only important sources of information 

 on the flora of the intratropical zone of this country. 



In the absence of a general work of a recent date on those 



