THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 101 



intermingled with small bushes of Myoporum insulare, M. 

 viscosum, Styphelia richei, and Alyxia buxi folia. Nature wisely 

 provided all these species with a great succulence or leathery 

 consistency in their foliage, in order to resist effectively 

 the great dryness of the soil and the hot temperature 

 which frequently occurs during the time of flowering in this 

 coastal district. Numerous small bushes of Leptospermuni 

 Icevigatitm, with its dainty white flowers, cover the slope, whilst 

 here and there, in small clusters, we found Lasiopetalum baueri, 

 the whole overshaded at intervals by specimens of Casuarina 

 quadrivalvis. All these plants, growing on the slope and forming 

 there the prevailing vegetation, are living in a community that 

 difl'ers in appearance from the next group, in which the Coast 

 Tea-tree, Lejitospermum Icevigatum, is the prominent feature. 



Immediately on the edge of the slope, the Tea-tree, being 

 arborescent, forms a belt of dense scrub of varying width, having 

 for companions Acacia longifolia, Casuarina quadrivalvis, and 

 Banksia integrifolia, on which we often noticed the climbers 

 Clematis microphylla and Cassytha pubescens, both at this time in 

 fruit, with Muehlenbeckia adpressa in flower. On the edge of the 

 slope, where the Tea-tree does not form a compact mass, we 

 found Mesembryanthemum, Myoporum, Styphelia, Rhagodia, and 

 Tetragonia — a repetition of the first fellowship — while in the shade 

 of the Tea-trees, where the sandy soil has been improved through 

 the old leaves falling from the trees year after year, the orchids 

 Caladeiiia carnea, Pterostylis curia, P. concinna, Diuris loiigi- 

 folia, Acianthus exserttis, and Corysanthes pruinosa find the 

 necessary conditions for their life. 



The vegetation growing on the slope and this of the second 

 fellowship show a considerable overlapping of the associated 

 species, but this condition does not occur further inland, where 

 the transition to the open ground is more or less fairly well 

 marked. 



The third fellowship is composed of entirely different species, 

 which, on principle, will not accept the shelter which the Tea- 

 tree offers them close by. In fact, if we strike in this part a 

 separated group of Tea-trees, we notice that the flora under 

 them does not consist of the same species as those growing 

 around them. The prevailing species do not like the shade at 

 all. Most of them are well marked by their spinescent leaves, 

 thus having the surface area greatly reduced. This we observed 

 in Hakea nodosa, H. ulicina, Acacia oxycedrus, A. juniperina, 

 Isopogon ceratophyllus, Davesia tdicina, Epacris iinpressa, and 

 £. oblusifolia. As the sandy soil here is very dry, and the transpir- 

 ation, owing to the dry air, is so great, the transpiring foliage 

 must be reduced to a minimum in order to maintain the balance 

 and allow the plant to utilize the scanty supply of water to the 



