364 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
the sea. For twelve or fifteen feet above the water, the strata _ 
in the calcareous sandstone are placed very close together, — 
there being ten or twelve of them in a foot of perpendicular 
height; they lie horizontally, unless where masses of the rocks — 
have been undermined by the waters of the ocean, and have 
fallen in various directions. I observed a black coloured lime- — - 
stone, resembling marble, also a grey kind spotted with black — 
and striated with black of the same description, but the great — 
mass of the hills consists of calcareous sand, very imperfectly 
changed intostone. A crust of limestone, seldom more than — 
two or three inches thick, is generally found near the surface — — 
in the low parts of the island, and it extends, but more ule. 
equal in thickness, over the very tops of the hills. In this - 
crust may be seen what appear to have been the trunks of. 
large trees with a foot or two of them remaining where they - 
seem to have grown, but now changed into solid limestone; in 
many places the calcareous sand has fallen away, and left the - 
roots of the trees now converted into stone, remaining just a$- 
we see the roots of trees on the banks of mountain-rivers that — 
are undermined by the current. The soil in the vallies o. 
Rotnesst is a rich calcareous sand, with a large portion of | 
vegetable mould, and the plants found on the island are 
nearly the same as grow on Garden Island. We found & - 
fine Boronia, likewise an inhabitant of Gatden Island, flower- 
- ing on the exposed western coast of the island; its leaves - 
are pinnated, with winged foot-stalks, it smells strong; like the | 
‘European Rue. A small arborescent: Pittosporum, bearing * 
yellow berries, which was in flower with ripe fruit at the same E 
time; the Garden Island Cypress in flower; and the Myr- 
taceous tree, with a parasitical Loranthus, but not in bloom; - 
_ these are the principal timber-trees of the island. Neither - 
.. Xanthorrheas, Eucalypti, nor Proteaceous plants could be 
. Seen, although species of these genera grow close to the shore 
the mainland.. A showy Rutaceous plant, having 1% 
scarlet flowers collected in a common calyx,” was 1n 
| Diplolena Dampieri, Desf. 
