146 BOTANY OF SOUTH-WESTERN NEAV SOUTH WALES, 



Marsilea drummondii, A.Br., grows abundantly on land in the 

 w^estern portion that is subject to periodical inundation, but the 

 involucres are rarely now collected b}^ the Blacks as an article of 

 food. Of the fern family (Filices) Cheilanthes tenuifolia, Swartz, 

 has the widest range, being found on high and low land, on 

 various classes of soil and on stony rises. In some districts the 

 "bracken" fern, Pteris aquilina, Linn., var. esculenta, is common, 

 and I have been informed that the Aborigines, before they tasted 

 the sweets of civilisation, used to cook and eat the underground 

 stems of this fern. The other members of this family enumerated 

 in the following pages are mostly found in the eastern portion 

 and in some places fairly plentifully, with the exception of Ophio- 

 glossum vulgatum, Linn., which appears to be rare. 



This is the first Census of the Phanerogamia and vascular 

 Cryptogamia of South- Western New South Wales, and I hope it 

 will be found useful to those w^ho desire to study the flora of that 

 portion of the State. Many plants not hitherto recorded from 

 that region will be found in the following pages. 



All the indigenous plants included in this Census that I did 

 not know at sight I have worked out by the diagnosis given in 

 Bentham's ' Flora Australiensis,' and I have followed the same 

 classification and nomenclature as have been adopted in that 

 valuable reference work. 



The plants marked with an asterisk are exotic, but some of 

 them have become acclimatised in the South-West. 



The plants marked with a dagger have been figured and 

 described, as to their economic value, by me. 



In addition to those intrepid explorers already mentioned, 

 several others, including Frazer, Eyre, Dallachy, Mueller and 

 Beckler, have collected plants in the South-West, and their names 

 will always be inseparably associated with the flora of New South 

 Wales. 



My thanks are due to a number of pastoralists and stockmen 

 for forwarding me botanical specimens for identification during 

 the last nineteen years. 



