^^5^] SvTTOS, A Sketch of the Ketlor Plahis Flora. 123 



Coastal Plant Associations. 



Although in certain places the plain, with its own proper 

 vegetation, ends abruptly at the sea in low cliffs, there is no 

 belt of scrub clothing its edge as on the other side of the Bay. 

 Mostly the western shores are very . low-lying, and extensive 

 areas are more or less affected by salt water. Salt plants, or 

 halophytes, are consequently much more prominent, and the 

 different conditions as regards moisture and salinity of the soil 

 have led to very well defined associations. The first contains 

 marine plants referred by Warming to '' Enhalid- formations" 

 among water plants (hydrophytes). Two of these — Halophila 

 ovata, with delicate, transparent, elliptical leaves, and the 

 more robust Cymodocea zosterifolia — are constantly submerged, 

 and their existence in adjacent submarine meadows is inferred 

 from the presence of their fragments in the wrack thrown up 

 by the waves. Forming a considerable portion of this tangled 

 mass of algae are the ribbon-like leaves of the third member 

 of this group, Zostera nana, which thickly occupies sand-banks 

 exposed at low water, and termed a " zosteretum." 



The next association, that of the sand-loving salt plants, 

 " psammophilons halophytes,'' inhabits the strand and the 

 occasional small dunes lying just behind. Cakile maritima, 

 Salsola kali, and Atriplex cinereum are most typical of the former 

 station. Tetragonia expansa and Apiiim prostratum are also 

 common, but Calocephalus Brownii is only occasionally seen. 

 A little away from the water, on the dunes, are mostly grasses 

 and sedges. Zoysia pimgens and Distichlis maritima, forming 

 dense mats, and Spinifex hirsiitus have a creeping habit ; 

 Festuca littoralis and Stipa teretifolia are tufted. Glycina 

 striata, the Lepturus, the introduced Elymus arenarius, with 

 Scirpus nodosus and Carex pumila, are the other principal 

 species. Dicotyledons are rare. Statice australis and Sccevola 

 suaveolens have been noted, but only Spergularia rubra and 

 a number of aliens are in any way abundant. 



(To he continued.) 



" Our Wattles." — ^This is the title of an illustrated booklet 

 of 76 pages by Mr. T. C. Wollaston, of Adelaide, in which he 

 describes in chatty way the charms of many of our wattles. 

 The publication is illustrated by ten plates in colour of various 

 species, but, unfortunately, they do not do justice to the species 

 depicted. The difficulties in the way of producing a true 

 colour- print of a wattle are very great — the yellows seem to 

 be hard to get ; but perhaps it is the natural fluiliness of a wattle 

 bloom which renders it so difficult to reproduce. The fact of 

 having been printed in England, far from the natural examples, 

 has perhaps militated against the success of the illustrations. 



