444 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D, 



botanical names only that this presents no great difflculty, par- 

 ticularly with such names as Banksia, Hakea, Kennedyn, Bnrsaria, 

 Boronia, Grevillea, and many others. Most objectionable, how- 

 ever, are such names as sheaoak, Leichhardt's jiine, &;e., when a 

 Casuarina has no more likeness to an oak, nor a Sarcncephalus to a 

 pine, than a toad to a fish. 



Some difficulty might possibly be found in properly distinguish- 

 ing the numerous species of our large genera, such as the eucalyptus 

 or gumtree tribe. In different localities different species of this 

 genus are known by the same vernacular name ; thus we find that 

 there are tAvelve white gums, ten blue gums, eight red gums, and 

 four spotted gums, eight ironbarks and eight stringybarks, three 

 mallees, four woolly butts, and four bloodwoods, while the pepper- 

 mints number seven. It can thus be easily seen that it will not be 

 easy to suppress those names in every case but one, and to replace 

 them for all other species by other adequate names. United action 

 only can do this, and, as I think that this would be a proper subject 

 for the consideration of this Association, I venture to suggest that 

 a standing committee be appointed to prepare a list of rational and 

 euphonious names for our native flowering plants. 



10.— THE FAUNAL REGIONS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Bii C. MEDLEY, F.L.S. 



The discrimination of the various provinces into whifh the 

 Australian fauna and flora group themselves has been frequently 

 attempted. To the earlier naturalists, from a study of scanty 

 material and with little or no personal knowledge of the continent, 

 four divisions of east and west, temperate and tropical, seemed 

 natural and sufficient. Hooker's " Essay on the Australian Flora" 

 paved the way for a better understanding of the relations which 

 various localities bore to each otlier. Owing to fundamental errors 

 of his interpretation of Australian geology, Wallace's treatment of 

 the subject in " Island Life" is of but slight vahie. To the writer, 

 the most successful arrangement of the various biological regions 

 yet proposed is that sketched by Professor Tate, in his address 

 to the first meeting of this Association. This author accepts tAvo 

 main biological divisions — the Aulochfhonicm, developed in west 

 Australia, and the Euronotian, seated in eastern Australia and 

 Tasmania ; a subsidiary division, less in value and derivable from 

 both the above, is the Eremian, or desert fauna and flora. 



Taking this disposition as the bisis of my remarks, I would 

 observe that eastern Australia contains two distinct biological 



