CONOLUDING PREFACE. vil 
islands of the South Pacifie, but not to any great extent. More 
Australian types appear to be represented in New Caledonia than New 
Caledonian ones in Australia. 
6. Introduction, as it were accidental, from various countries, 
very sparingly from natural causes from time immemorial, more 
rapidly through human agency direct or indirect since European 
colonisation has set in. Many European weeds and escapes from cul- 
tivation are becoming common in the Eastern colonies, a few plants 
commonly cultivated by Malays have established themselves in North- 
east Australia. South African weeds find a more genial home in the 
south-western districts. Very few American species have been im- 
ported excepting through Europe or South Africa. 
7. A few plants, very different from any genuine Australian types, 
but identical or closely connected with species at home in far distant 
countries (North or Western America, East Mediterranean region, etc.) 
were met with by the first explorers of inland districts, under conditions 
which precluded any idea of recent introduction. These have been 
chiefly either annuals or herbaceous or even shrubby or arborescent 
species known to propagate readily by seeds, produced in abundance 
and apparently retaining for a long time their germinating power. The 
appearance of these plants in Australia is, however, in some instances 
not readily explained. 
The principal features of the inland distribution of the indigenous 
flora, the remarkable isolation and highly differentiated character of 
that of the south-west corner, its continuity and the gradual connec- 
tion and change of species, systematic as well as geographical, down 
the eastern side from Queensland down to Tasmania, and the wide 
spread of many desert species from Dampier’s Archipelago to Spencer’s 
Gulf and from the Murchison to the Maranoa, have long since been 
pointed out, and have since been confirmed by all recent observa- 
tions. 
A few other general characteristics of the flora may be adverted to, 
such as the absence of any Bambusex or Equisetaces, the paucity of 
Filiees in the western moiety whether tropical or extratropical and 
the very small number of endemic Filices in the whole region. 
