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PAPERS READ. 



NOTES ON SOME SPECIMENS OF PLANTS COLLECTED 

 AT KINO GEORGE'S SOUND BY Mr. H. WILLIS. 



By The Rev. W. Woolls. Ph.D., F.L.S. 



Some time since I forwarded to the Linnean Society, with 

 Notes, 38 specimens of plants collected at King George's Sound 

 by the Rev. R. Collie, F.L.S., and in so doing I endeavoured to 

 explain, by the assistance of my late friend Mr. C. S. Wilkinson, 

 F.G.S., the probable reason why the flora of Western Australia 

 ditFers so much from that of the eastern portion of the continent. 

 That eminent geologist was of opinion that, during the Miocene 

 period, the condition of Australia was very different from what it 

 now is, as probably the ocean occupied all that low country 

 between Spencer's Gulf and Western Australia ; whilst during the 

 Cretacean period about two-thirds of Australia must have been 

 under the ocean. Supposing, therefore, that Eastern and Western 

 Australia at some very remote period were separated by water, 

 and that, in the course of many generations, the conditions of soil 

 and climate have been considerably modified in both regions, it 

 may be presumed that the western or purely Australian plants 

 became very much localised, whilst the eastern flora, in addition 

 to the few species which have immigrated to it from the 

 west, has been mixed with plants of an Asiatic or Polynesian 

 type. An examination of 35 species, which have recently been 

 collected at King George's Sound, will show how few have 

 travelled eastwards : — 



(1) DlLLENIACE^. 



1. Rihbertia fxirjuracea, Benth. 



(2) POLYGALE^. 



2. Comesperma confertimi, Labill. 



