36 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



The Vegetation of Australasia. — The first of a series of 

 articles which will doubtless be of interest to our lovers of plant 

 life appeared in Knowledge for March last. It is entitled " On 

 the Vegetation and Some of the Vegetable Productions of 

 Australasia," and is from the pen of Mr. W. Botting Hemsley, 

 F.R.S., F.L.S. The writer proposes to make comparisons 

 between our Australian vegetation and that of other parts of the 

 world. About nine thousand species of flowering plants and 

 ferns have been published for Australia, while Europe possesses 

 about nine thousand five hundred, and the British islands one 

 thousand five hundred. Australia is remarkable for the large 

 number of species of trees and shrubs ; for the large number of 

 species of one and the same genus ; for the large number of trees 

 and shrubs having brilliantly-coloured flowers and woody seed- 

 vessels, associated with hard grey-green or blue-green foliage ; 

 for the large number of species peculiar to the country ; and for 

 the very large number of very local species. One of the earliest 

 references to Australian plants is in Dampier's " Voyage to New 

 Holland in 1699," where a few of the plants noticed by that 

 navigator on the north-west coast of Australia are figured. He 

 landed on a small island not far from the present town of Cossack, 

 of which he writes as follows: — "There grow here two or three 

 sorts of shrubs, one just like Rosemary ; and therefore I called 

 this Rosemary Island. It grew in great plenty here, but had no 

 smell. Some of the other shrubs had blue and yellow flowers, 

 and we found two sorts of grain-like beans. The one grew 

 on bushes ; the other on a sort of creeping vine that runs 

 along on the ground, having a blossom like a bean blossom, 

 but much larger, and of a deep red colour, looking very 

 beautiful." The first of these plants is now known as Aster 

 axillaris, F. v. M., and is common all round the western and 

 southern coasts, and extends to Tasmania. The second is the 

 well-known Sturt's Desert Pea, Clianthus Dampieri, Cunning. 

 Dried specimens of some of the plants which struck him by their 

 peculiarities were taken to England by Dampier, and are still in 

 existence at Oxford and in the British Museum. He also caused 

 drawings to be made of a number of plants, birds, and animals, 

 which were engraved and published in 1703 in the volume 

 previously referred to. It is somewhat singular that one of our 

 most brilliantly-coloured flowers, the only species of the genus in 

 Australia, should have been the first to be brought under the 

 notice of English botanists. Its cultivation as a garden plant is 

 often attempted, but seldom with any great success. Another 

 species of the genus, C. puniceus, is a native of New Zealand, and 

 is of shrubby growth, and does well in cultivation ; its flowers, 

 however, are not so brilliant as its Australian congener. 



