Jub%1 Torp, IVild-flmveys of South-Wesfern Australia. 37 



IMPRESSIONS OF THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SOUTH- 

 WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 



By C. a. Topp, I.S.O., M.A., LL.B. 

 [Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 12th March, 191 7.) 

 During October last year, and a lew days at the end of Sep- 

 tember and the beginning of November, I visited Western 

 Australia, and spent most of my time at Bunbury, a seaport 

 115 miles south of Fremantle. While staying there I made 

 several excursions for about 20 miles on the railway line 

 towards Perth, for 12 or 15 miles inland from the coast, and 

 about 50 miles south, also along the coast to Yallingup C'aves. 



While on this visit the great beauty and novelty of the 

 flora impelled me to collect and dry some of the most con- 

 spicuous of the wild-tiowers, and I have brought them heie 

 to-night, and propose to make a few remarks on them and on 

 the flora of this part of Western Australia. I was at a great 

 disadvantage from the fact that no local flora (in the book 

 sense) was oI)tainable, and that there was no copy of the 

 "Flora Australiensis " to which I could refer. My newlj'- 

 mad(^ friends at Bunbury were very good in taking me to 

 localities where an abundance of material was to be obtained, 

 and in Perth I was helped in identifying some of my specimens 

 by comparing them with some admirable water-colour 

 drawings by a lady residing near Perth, and in a very hasty 

 visit to the University by Professor Dakin's assistant (Mr. 

 Kayser) in regard to the plants also found near Perth. Since 

 my return to Victoria Professor Ewart kindly arranged for 

 .Mr. Audas, of the National Herbarium, to look over and name 

 my si)ecimens. 



I may exj')lain that, though nearly the whole area o\-er which 

 I collected was not above 20 miles square, and, indeed, though 

 the bulk of my specimens were gathered within a few mile.^ 

 of Bimbury, they seem to be quite tyi>ical of the celel)rated 

 flora of the south-west, or, to l)e more exact, of plants 

 flowering in mid-spring in that region. 



My interest in the south-west corner of our island-continent 

 as a botanic region had long ago been awakened by the notice 

 of it in Sir Joseph Hooker's famous introduction to the 

 " Flora Tasmaniae," and I may revive your recollections of 

 that essay by a few quotations. He says : — " There is a 

 greater specific difference between S.W. anrl S.E. Australia 

 than between Australia and the rest of the globe. . . . 

 The most marked characteristics of the Australian flora are 

 concentrated at that point which is geographically most remote 

 from any other region of the globe. ... In studying the 

 rxtra-tropieal liura ui Australia the tir^>t phenomenon wliich 



