404 THE HORN EXPEDITION TO CENTRAL AUSTRALIA. 



as the result of personal knowledge of the country he proposes to 

 shift the boundary to the latitude of Engoordina. To the north of 

 this is a tableland of Ordovician sandstone eroded in long parallel 

 east and west valleys of varying width. This area Prof. Tate terms 

 Larapintine from the native name Larapinta of the upper and 

 middle Finke river. We gather from the Report that the first 

 botanical exploration of this region was by J. Macdouall Stuart, 

 who collected during his travels from the Finke River to the 

 McDonnell Range in 1860-62. 



The plants were determined by Baron von Mueller, and an 

 enumeration of them was published as an appendix to the Journals 

 of J. McD. Stuart, London, 1864. Ten years later Ernest Giles 

 geographically explored the Larapintine region to the westward of 

 the Finke River, and made extensive botanical collections ; these 

 were likewise worked out by Baron von Mueller, and published as 

 an appendix to Mr. E. Giles' Geographic Travels in Central Australia 

 (1872-74). It contains the names of 254 species, of which 114 

 belong to the Larapintine flora. Contemporaneously with Giles, 

 W. C. Gosse crossed the western confines of the Larapintine region 

 in his traverse from Central Mount Wedge and Mount Liebig to 

 Mount Olga ; and the Rev. H. Kempe, of the Mission station at 

 Hermannsburg, has also made successive collections in the same 

 region, the results of which have been published in the Transactions 

 of the Royal Society of South Australia, vol. iii. p. 129, 1880, and 

 vol. V. p. 19, 1882. In 1889 Mr. Tietkens traversed the northern 

 part of the Larapintine region from Alice Springs to its western 

 limit, and added fifty-eight species, including five new to science, 

 to the Flora {Trans. Uoy. Soc. S. Austr. xiii. 94-109, 170-171, 1890). 

 Other smaller collections have been made, the novelties having been 

 from time to time published by Baron von Mueller. 



The number of species known for the Larapintine region 

 previous to the advent of the Horn Expedition was 602 ; this 

 has now been increased to 614, the additions including eight 

 new species — Acacia Cowleana Tate, A. frumentacea Tate, Didisciis 

 GillencB Tate, Wedelia Stirlingi Tate, Goodenia Horniana Tate, 

 6r. Larapinti Tate, Elacholoma Horni F. v. M. & Tate (a new 

 genus of Scrophularinece), Xanthorrhcea Thorntoni Tate — and six- 

 teen new for South Australia. 



The dominant feature of the Central Eremian region is the pre- 

 valence of salsolaceous plants, especially over the stony places and 

 loamy flats ; in the Larapintine region they are replaced by grasses, 

 and of these a species of Triodia (porcupine grass, or, incorrectly, 

 "spinifex" of explorers and residents) dominates sandy ground 

 and the sterile slopes and tops of the sandstone table-lands. 

 The arboreous vegetation is represented by Casuarina Decaisneana 

 (desert oak), Grevillea striata (silky oak), Brachychiton Greyorii, 

 Ficus platypoda, Eucalyptus terminalis, E. Oldfuidii, Canthium lati- 

 folium, Livistona maria, Encephalartos Macdonnellii, and others 

 which are either restricted to the region or do not pass beyond 

 its southern boundary. Acacia Farncsiana, Atalaya hcmiylauca, 

 Eucalyptus tessellaris, and E. gamophylla are prevalent, though 



