PLANTS GATHERED DURING MR. FORREST's EXPEDITION. 321 



the flowers smaller and lighter-coloured. Like the Thyme, however, it 

 is frequently unisexual. In Verbena officinalis, which is protogynous, 

 both the pistil and stamens are completely concealed in the tube of the 

 corolla, beneath the ring of hairs which clothe its throat. 



My object in presenting these few obseiTations to the notice of the 

 readers of the ' Journal of Botany' is to induce others who have more 

 leisure at their disposal to follow them out. I believe a few systematic 

 ol)servations of this kind may not be without their fruit in physiological 

 botany. The points which I should especially desire to have submitted 

 to close observation are, whether the same species is uniform in its 

 phenomena of protandry, protogyny, or synacmy ; and if it varies, 

 under what conditions of climate, soil, or season. 



NOTE ON PLANTS GATHERED NEAE LAKE BARLEE 

 DURING MR. FORREST'S RECENT EXPEDITION. 



By Ferdinand von Mueller, Ph.D. 



Director of the 3Ielhourne Botanic Garden. 



The plants in this collection have more of the character of the 

 vegetation of Southei-n than of Western Australia. Some of them 

 extend to the Brigalow Scrubs of the Burdekin river and to Sturt's 

 Creek, and have thus a wide range through the more central portions 

 of Australia ; and, indeed, it may be safely asserted that the physio- 

 gnomy of the vegetation of at least two-thirds of the continent is in 

 its main features the same, although an admixture of endemic species 

 gives to the vegetation of some portions of the interior a somewhat 

 peculiar character. 



The occurrence of a Rhagodia of the series of R. parabolica and of 

 Kochia villosa indicates a salt-bush country, available for pasture. 

 The genus Eremophila, which contains the most beautiful of all our 

 desert bushes, generally bordering serai-saline flats, where they pass 

 into sandy or rocky ridges, is well represented in Mr. Forrest's 

 small collection, inasnuich as the following species occur : E. lalifoUa, 

 E, Latrobei, E. plutycalyx, a narrow-leaved variety of E. Oldfieldii 

 (verging towards E. gracilijiora), and a new species, to which I am 

 happy to give the name of the young, but talented and courageous 

 VOL. Vlir. [OCTOBER 1, 1870.] 2 A 



