ON THE MYRTACE^E OF AUSTRALIA. 



By Rev W. Woolls, Ph.D., F.L.S. 



The Myrtle family, occurring as it does both within and without 

 the tropics, may be regarded as one of the most useful and 

 extensive families of the Vegetable Kingdom. It is also easily 

 recognised, for the leaves are for the most part opposite, exstipulate, 

 and filled with dots of volatile oil, whilst the venation is marked 

 by a marginal or intramarginal vein. The species are naturally 

 divided into capsular and berried, the former being wholly or 

 chiefly Australian, and the latter widely spread both in the New 

 and Old World. Only one species, Myrtus communis, now grows 

 wild in Europe (and that is supposed to have been introduced from 

 Persia), though there is reason to believe, that, during the eocene 

 period when the climate of that division of the globe was much 

 warmer than it now is, Myrtaceous trees flourished there with other 

 plants of an Australian aspect. These trees, which some regard as 

 the last vestiges of the organic creation peculiar to the primitive 

 world, now appear in great abundance in Australia, the Myrtacece 

 alone, according to Baron F. von Mueller, reckoning between 600 

 and 700 species and constituting by far the greater portion of the 

 native forests. In the distribution of these trees and shrubs, there 

 is a peculiarity which is somewhat perplexing, for whilst, in some 

 portions of the continent, they occur in undue proportion to the 

 rest of the vegetation, they are limited in others to half the number 

 of genera and a sixth of the species, as will appear from the 

 following estimate of Baron Mueller. 



Genera. Species. 



Western Australia 25 .. 379 



IS ew South Wales 18 ... 145 



Queensland 23 ... 132 



Victoria 13 ... 78 



South Australia 11 ... 70 



North Australia 17 ... 68 



