128 ON THE RELATIONS OF THE BRISBANE FLORA, 



SP. IN W. SP. IN S.E. 

 GENtrS# AUSTRALIA. AUSTRALIA. 



Pulteneea 15 50 



Melaleuca 100 27 



Persoonia 25 40 



It must be remarked, however, that a great many changes will 

 have to be made in Hooker's tables, especially with regard to 

 the genera, as many which he regarded as confined to S.W. 

 Australia, occur in the census subjoined for Brisbane. Of this 

 Jacksonia and Ohorizema are instances, and many others might be 

 cited as common to S.E. and S.W. Australia. 



In this essay I am gradually comparing the relations of the 

 Brisbane flora, proceeding from the general to the particular, 

 and hitherto the comparison, as far as orders and genera are 

 concerned, can only be regarded as a very general and rough 

 estimate. When we come to the comparison of species, the 

 results are much more reliable, but they bear out all that has 

 previously been concluded, thus showing that rough as the 

 previous methods are, they are still in general accordance with 

 the facts. This is the more remarkable if we advert to the fact 

 that in botany generic distinctions are made on very slight 

 grounds, and that the grouping into natural orders is made on 

 the basis of a very general and sometimes loose resemblance. 

 Yet it does seem remarkable that when we have made certain 

 groups of plants founded on some slight peculiarity, that this 

 peculiarity is found to affect generally certain prescribed 

 geographical limits. Take as an instance the genus Br achy come 

 (Compositce), which is only distinguished from Bellis by the dry 

 or scarious margins of the involucral bracts. Yet such a 

 peculiarity is confined to Australia and N. Zealand (three species 

 only), and one S. African, while Bellis is scarcely found outside 

 the Mediterranean region. Beclfordia is an Australian Senecio, 

 with a stellate tomentum, and an axillary inflorescence ; yet in 

 the very large and widely distributed genus Senecio, numbering 



