147 



of Kangaroo Island, we find brought together at little above 

 sea level plants, which only a few miles to the northward are 

 relegated to various zones of considerable elevation relatively. 

 This kind of association is well seen at the Stun'sail-boom 

 Eiver and at the Cygnet River. It is also worthy of notice, 

 that several of the species have habits considerably different 

 from those, which they have on the mainland. JEucalyptus capi- 

 tellata is always shrubby, whilst E. cosmophylla in moist, 

 sheltered situations attains to a height of 25 feet, with a stem 

 three feet in girth. E. ohliqua is only known as a small scraggy 

 tree. Melaleuca uncinata, on the margin of the subsaline plain 

 at the Cygnet E.iver, towers up in pyramidal shape to fifteen 

 feet, and %L. pustulata forms a dense forest-growth in protected 

 situations about D'Estrees Bay. Banksia marginata is always 

 shrubby, but XantJiorrhcea qiiadrangulata acquires unusual 

 dimensions, the trunks being not infrequently bifurcate, and 

 rarely trifurcate, and in a few instances I have seen them with 

 four crowns. 



It cannot, I think, be questioned that the climate is suitable 

 for the growth of exotics of the colder temperate regions, and 

 such of those of the warm temperate regions, which require 

 equable conditions of heat and moisture. The experimental 

 culture of the tea-plant, as suggested by Baron Sir F. von 

 Mueller, might engage the attention of the Commissioner of 

 Crown Lands and the Conservator of Forests. 



The effect of the battering action of the sea-moistened winds 

 on the plants, living on the exposed cliffs of the south coast is 

 to produce growths which at first sight are difficult to recognise 

 specifically. In general there results a prostrate habit, and 

 the development of thick fleshy leaves. The species in which 

 this effect is conspicuously seen is Ixodia acJiilleoides, which 

 from a slender shrubby herb of about three feet high, with 

 long linear leaves in favourable situations, here presents a 

 dense carpet of a few inches thick, covering the stony surfaces 

 on the summits of the sea-cliffs, the leaves ovate-spathulate, 

 thick and fleshy, half an inch long. Here Podolepis riigata be- 

 comes stemless, and Apium prostratum and Lohelia anceps are 

 minute prostrate plants. Euphrasia Brownii, Aster Huegelii, 

 Senecio lautus, Samolus repens and Blantago varia are also much 

 altered in appearance. 



COMPAEATIVE STATISTICS. 



Of the 416 species admitted as indigenous to Kangaroo 

 Island, there are : — Dicotyledoneae, 326 ; Monocotyledonae, 84 ; 

 Vascular Cryptogams, 6. The ratio of the Monocotyledons to 

 the Dicotyledons, being 1 to 4, approximates closely to that 

 for the flora of Australia, which is 1 to 4'53, rendered excep- 



