56 NATURALISED AND ACCLIMATISED PLANTS, ETC. 



human foot, plants which were familiar to his eye in the old 

 country. The water-plantain [Alisma plantarfo), the water 

 pepper [Polygonum hydropiper), the blinks (Montia rividaris), 

 the clubrush (Scirpus lacxistris and vxaritimus — Heleocharis 

 acicularis), the twig-rush {Cladium Marisais), the reed mace 

 {I'ypha auyustifolia), the sedge {(7arex Buxbaitwi, acuta, panicu- 

 lata), and the galingale (Cypenis Jlavescens), all of them, at least 

 72 species, have been gathered by me twenty years ago on the 

 Upper Macquarie, together with European aquatic grasses, like 

 the reeds Arundo phraamites, Glyceria fluitans, and Leersia liex- 

 andra. And on my last journey I fell in with the same plants, 

 on still waters, in many parts of the globe. 



The flora of high mountains is equally uniform, derived, 

 according to Sir .Joseph Hooker, from the glacial period of 

 post-tertiary age, when Arctic plants migrated to the Southern 

 Hemisphere. Horned trefoil (Lotu.s corniculatus), winter cress 

 (Bnrbarea vulyaris), hairy bitter cress (Canhimine hirsuta), 

 speedwell (Verojiica), eye-bright (Euphrasia), sun dew (Drosera), 

 crow-foot [Ranunculus), and many other genera are found on 

 the mountains of Norway and Switzerland, as well a? on the 

 South American Andes and the eastern ranges of Australia. 

 Graminitis rutcefolia, a small fern growing on our Queensland 

 rocks, was gathered by me also in New Zealand, Spain, Italy, 

 Mexico, Peru and Chili. 



A large percentage of East Australian plants came down 

 from India in post-tertiary times, when our Continent was still 

 connected with Asia. 



There exist exceptional spots in manycountries where soil and 

 climate are relished so much by certain plants, that many rare 

 and pretty herbs, shrubs and trees seem to flock to such secret 

 places. When I wrote my little "Flora of Freiburg " more than 

 thirty years ago, I noticed such a spot on the Kaiserstuhl. Mr. 

 F. xM. Bailey, the first botanical authority in the southern 

 hemisphere, discovered a small area on palaeozoic soil between 

 Yandina and Eumundi, on our North Coast line, where in a 

 tropical-like scrub he found a world of ferns, mosses, trees and 

 climbers occuring nowhere else round Brisbane, many of them 

 not previously described or named. The spot, recog- 

 nisable from the train by the high and smooth stems of 

 the Australian feather palm [Ptychosperma Cumiinyltami) ought 

 to be protected by Government, otherwise it will soon be taken 

 up by settlers and transformed into cornfields and pasture 

 paddocks. 



