530 DEVELOPMENT OF THE N.O. MYRTACEjE, 



ported a great number of species, as well as numerous genera. 

 Moreover, although the individuals were dwarfed in appearance, 

 yet were they clustered thickly together, and not scattered here and 

 there as on an arid plain. This sandstone area was surrounded by 

 formations of a clayey nature, and the soils from such formations, 

 when protected from the desolating winds of the interior, and also 

 when under the influence of a good rainfall, were observed to sup- 

 port luxuriant growths of plants belonging to types differing in 

 many ways from those which flourished on the sandstones. It was 

 noted, also, that the plant-types which were crowded together on 

 the coarse sandstones were those which had been recognised by 

 botanists as being practically confined to Australia, for example: 

 B(fckea, Banhsia, Leptospermum, Melaleuca, Callistemon, Ango- 

 phura, Kunzea, Calythrix, Darwinia, Pultencea, Eutaxia, Bos- 

 sicea, Go?npholobium, Styphelia, Monotoca, Epacris, Hakea, Gre- 

 villea, Xylomelum, Telopea, Persoonia, Boronia, Petroplula, Iso- 

 pogon, Lambertia, and others too numerous to mention. This, in 

 itself, was remarkable, but when, in addition, it was noted that the 

 rich, sheltered and well-watered pockets of soil, forming islands in 

 this sandstone-setting, were avoided almost absolutely by the 

 genera practically endemic in Australia, and were largely occu- 

 pied by genera not peculiar to Australia, such as Myrtus, Eugenia, 

 Elceocmyus, Ficus, Livistona, and others, the case became still 

 more interesting, and suggested that the peculiar vegetation, for 

 which Australia is noted, had been developed in an extremely 

 sandy and porous soil. Especially was this idea strengthened by 

 the knowledge that the extremely sandy granites of eastern New 

 South Wales, and the sandstones of the Clarence River Basin sup- 

 ported a flora almost identical with that of the Sydney sandstones 

 and the Blue Mountains. This conclusion received additional sup- 

 port, also, from the fact that this vegetation avoided the rich 

 basaltic soil of the Northern rivers, yielding place there to dense 

 growths belonging to genera not peculiar to Australia, such as 

 Dysoxylon, Echinocarpus, Panax, Sterculia, Cedrela, Gmelina, and 

 Elceocarpus. Moreover, although the individuals were closely-set 

 together on the sandstone, nevertheless the sunlight had access to 



