BY REV. W. WOOLLS, PH.D., F.L.S. 55 



places in the vegetable kingdom. Sir J. D. Hooker in his essay on 

 the Flora of Australia (1851)) states that "in the Bag^^hot sands some 

 silicified wood has been found, which may confidently be referred to 

 Baaksia, and which is in fact scarcely distinguishable from recent 

 and fossil Banksia wood ;" and he further adds " Wesel and 

 Weber describe from the brown coal of the Rhine a rich and 

 varied Flora, representing, &c., &c., &c., some of the peculiar and 

 characteristic genera of the Australian, South African, American, 

 Indian, and European Floras " A more recent writer affirms that 

 all the family of the Proteaceee, compi-ehending Banksia, Hakea, 

 Grevilka, existed in Europe during the tertiary period, and that 

 some of the fruits bear a marked resemblance to certain species 

 now found in Australia. At the present period of the world's 

 history the geographical distribution of the order is somewhat 

 j)erplexing, for whilst the species are most abundant in Australia 

 and South Africa, extending on the one hand to New Caledonia, 

 the Indian Archipelago, and tropical Asia and Japan, and on the 

 other to the Andes of South America— none of the Australian 

 and African species are identical, nor do any of those with 

 indehiscent fruit extend to America or Asia. Whilst, therefore, 

 the species described in the Flora Australiensis are strictly 

 indigenous, the relation to the Afi-ican Flora is simply tribual or 

 generic, so that Mr. Bentham, speaking in general terms without 

 any reference to the Flora of other geological periods, was of 

 opinion that " the great mass of purely Australian species and 

 endemic genera must have originated or been diiferentiated in 

 Australia, and never have spread for out of it." 



Now that, through the labours of Mr. Bentham and Baron 

 Mueller, we are enabled to take a general view of the Proteacece in 

 Australia, it appears that the known species of the order in this 

 continent amount to nearly 600, and that about two-thirds of that 

 number are found in Western Australia. The genera peculiar to 

 that colony are Simsio,, Synapheay Franklandia and Dryandra ; 

 whilst of Adenanthos, A. sericeus occurs in South Australia, and 

 A. terminalis in South Australia and Victoria, and of Lambertia, 

 L formosa in New South Wales. 



