13 



The Flora of Roebuck Bay, West 

 australia. 



By J. G. O. Teppef. F.L.S. 



[Read February 7, 189H.] 



The species of plants of wliicli the following list is an enumera- 

 tion were collected by my son (J. W. O, TepjDer) during the 

 exceptionally dry years 1889 to the close of 1891. They were 

 submitted to Baron Sir Ferd. von Mueller, F.R.S., <kc., for 

 identification; many af them were kindly determined by him; of 

 the rest the genera only were indicated. In the latter case T 

 have endeavoured by careful comparison with the descriptions to 

 fix the species. Where there is any doubt remaining on account 

 of insufficiency of the material obtainable, a note of interroga- 

 tion follows the name. 



The collector, with many other duties to attend to, and rarely 

 leisure for extended excursions, procured most of the plants within 

 the immediate neighbourhood of Roebuck Bay; the others were 

 obtained at a visit to Hancock's Cattle Station, about 25 miles 

 inland, an excursion to a part of the coast some seven to ten 

 miles southward, and on a telegraph-line-repairing trip of about 

 30 miles towards Derby. Want of time prevented him also to 

 attend to the matter systematically, and to supplement the speci- 

 mens occurring at some considerable distance; hence the doubt 

 attaching to some of the species. Incomplete as the list is, yet it 

 affords a good illustration of what constitutes the flora there in 

 very dry seasons. At the end of 1891 my son wrote that not 

 only did the majority of shrubs or plants fail to put forth 

 flowers or fruit, but remained or became nearly leafless ! There 

 existed then neither flowing nor stagnant water(fresh or brackish) 

 at the localities examined, excepting the sea ; and grasses or 

 grass-like plants were rare or wholly absent. The locality must, 

 therefore, be considered as belonging to the great Central Aus- 

 tralian Desert, and its flora becomes very interestino- as 

 representing the extreme north-western extension of that 

 region. 



Roebuck Bay, or Port Broome, as it has been named recently, 

 is situated on the north-west coast of Australia, in longitude 

 122° 12' 36" E., and latitude 10° 0' 15" S. It was sighted by the 

 earliest Dutch navigators, and visited by Dampier about 1688, 

 who named it after his vessel. The bay is formed by the main- 

 land on the south, and by a narrow peninsula (five miles long by 



