322 SPECIMENS OF PLANTS COLLECTED AT KING GEORGE's SOUND, 



W. Australia is rich in Proteaceae, and the large genus Dryandra 

 occurs nowhere else. 



Of the two Composites, Pitliocarpa corymhulosa is the only- 

 species of the genus, and, though approaching Humea, differs from 

 it in habit and involucre. It is a small plant with long slender 

 stems forming nearly leafless panicles of little white flowers. 

 Olearia cassinice seems peculiar to King George's Sound and Lake 

 Leven, and belongs to a series of plants differing very little from 

 each other. Indeed, when comparing it with some of our Eastern 

 species, especially 0. ramulosa, it is very difficult to say whether 

 they are all distinct species or not. 



Having glanced at the most striking of Mr. Collie's specimens, 

 it may not be out of place to make some general observations on 

 our flora as bearing on the differences between the eastern and 

 western species and genera. Mr. Bentham's opinion was that the 

 predominant portion of the Australian flora was indigenous, 

 although there appeared to be a very remote ordinal, tribual, or 

 generic connection with African forms. He also recognised on 

 the one hand, an ancient connection between Australia and India, 

 and on the other, a still more ancient one, through the Alpine 

 Flora of Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand, even to the 

 American Continent. Whilst fully acknowledging the sagacity of 

 the distinguished Botanist as accounting for the diversity of forms 

 found in Australia, the difficulty still remains of accounting for 

 the great differences in the genera and species of S.W. and S.E. 

 Australia. Sir J. D. Hooker, after having expressed an opinion 

 that Western Australia mi^jht be reojarded as the centrum of 

 Australian vegetation, whence a migration proceeded Eastward 

 and led gradually to the differentiation of specific forms, suggests 

 that the inquiry cannot be pursued satisfactorily without a know- 

 ledge of the comparative geologic ages of the respective regions. 

 On this question I am permitted to quote a passage from a 

 communication addressed to me by our indefatigable Geologist Mr. 

 Wilkinson : — " I do not think that the Western Australian Flora 

 can be rightly understood until studied in connection with the 



