ton 
In the moister regions, cultivation generally annihilates every- 
thing indigenous, and after its cessation annuals very slowly 
reappear. Each locality has of course its peculiar species, but 
the common Purslane (Portulaca oleracea), so widely spread 
through Asia and Australia, and known by the aborigines as 
*« Parakylia,” is almost universal in rich soils. 
Many garden plants are spreading rapidly, and becoming 
weeds, so that it is now quite common to find some of them in 
secluded localities to which they have spread from a selector’s 
garden ; the showy Vinca rosea, so abundant on the Queensland 
coast is a good example, but I do not know of any introduced 
forest-tree which has reproduced itself largely, except under 
cultivation, although Pinus halepensis might have been expected 
to do so. 
It is safe to conclude that on the whole cultivation means 
absolute destruction to the Australian flora, whether of the 
tropical, subtropical, or temperate climates; and because the 
richest soils are naturally those most suitable for cultivation, 
the species endemic in those localities are most likely to become 
extinct. The Illawarra district of New South Wales affords a 
striking example of the alteration which may take place within 
a very limited period ; in few spots can the botanist now discover 
the specimens of the peculiar and lovely flora for which it was 
celebrated, when first settled, and this almost the loveliest dis- 
trict of Australia has now become commonplace and compara- 
tively uninteresting to the botanist. 
The farmer, the squatter, the miner, and the swagman all 
cause extensive conflagrations, and by their oft-recurrence the 
arborescent growths are reduced to mere scrubs, and the more 
tender plants, such as orchids and other flowering plants, are 
utterly destroyed with a recklessness which can only be fittingly 
described as insane. In aboriginal times fires were much less 
frequent, and in the forest regions were rarely intentional. 
Although in the plains-country, between the coastal forest-belts 
and the desiccated interior, fires were systematically employed 
in hunting wallabies and kangaroos, yet as these plains were 
‘usually grassy little harm resulted ; in fact, these fires at long 
intervals assisted the germination of the hard seeds of the 
Acacias, &c., and were so far beneficial. Now, however, fre- 
quent fires and the subsequent grazing by sheep, which eat off 
the tender shoots of almost every shrub and the hearts out of 
the Xanthorreas, and nibble the shoots of other arenaceous- 
loving plants, prevent anything but the hardiest surviving ; 
from this cause alone many rare plants, most of which are of 
sporadic occurrence, and would seem to be survivals of a still 
more ancient flora, are being surely destroyed, although under 
