BY A. A. HAMILTON. 389 



open spreading shrub of 3-4 feet. An even more remarkable 

 exception occurs near Bell, where, on the bald ridges, a Lepto- 

 spermum was noted, which, prostrate and almost leafless, with 

 short branches and thickened shoots, appeared to be in the last 

 stages of degeneracy. Followed down a bush-track, the plants 

 were seen to assume an upright habit, and fling out an occa- 

 sional rampant branch, responding to the superior conditions of 

 shelter, moisture, and food-supply, until, on reaching the Valley 

 of the Grose, it had, by various stages, become a graceful shrub 

 12 feet high, thickly clad with delicate foliage. Several species 

 whicli traverse the area under notice, undergo considerable modi- 

 fications. Acacia suaveolens Willd., (which invariably displays 

 xerophytic tendencies) maintains its coastal configuration until 

 it reaches King's Tableland, when it assumes the habit of the 

 elevated drs'-ridge xerophyte (These Proceedings, 1914, p. 471). 

 Another example is Bceckea densifolia Sm., which, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Valley Heights, is an open, graceful plant, but, on 

 the dry ridges exposed to the bleak "Westerlies" at the 3,500 

 feet level, it exhibits the usual characters resultant from its 

 harsher environment (These Proceedings, 1914, p. 254). 



Traffic, here as elsewhere, is responsible for the distribution 

 of the more adaptable species. Two of the most prominent are 

 Calotis cuneifolia R.Br., (with blue), and C. lappulacea Benth., 

 (with yellow flowers), both of which may be noted from the train 

 fpllowing the railway-track throughout the area. The ubiquitous, 

 weedy Helichrysum apiculatum DC, may also be placed in this 

 category. 



The following species have not previously been recorded (so 

 far as the writer has ascertained) from the Blue Mountains: — 

 Comesperma defoliatuin F.v.M., Claytonia Pickeriiuji J^'.v.M., 

 Zieria pilosa Rudge, Boronia parvifiora Sm., Viminaria denu- 

 data Sm., BcEckeM diosmifoHa Rudge, Melaleuca Unariifolia Sm., 

 Leucopogon appressus R.Br., [In Barron Field's " Geographical 

 Memoirs on New South Wales," p. 341, xlllan Cunningham 

 records L. appres!<}Ls R Br., as frequent on the mountains. 

 Bentham, Fl. Austr., iv., 223, shows that L. appressus R.Br., 

 had been collected in only one locality, viz., Port Jackson, Coll. 



