MEDITERRANEAN PORTIONS OF AUSTRALIA 185 



flowers. Here is the home of these gorgeous shrubs — 

 acacias, mimosas, proteas, banksias, and heath-like 

 Epacrldaceae — which are now cultivated along the 

 Mediterranean and provide us with flowers in mid- 

 winter. At the back of this belt the rainfall diminishes 

 very rapidly, and the scrub, mainly of the Mallee type, 

 interspersed with grass-lands, forms an intermediate 

 zone leading to the inland Mulga. 



Along the shores of the Spencer Gulf, the forest form 

 is much less developed, but the undergrowth of hard- 

 leaved shrubs builds extensive scrub which exactly 

 corresponds to the Californian chaparral and to the Medi- 

 terranean and South African maquis. These formations, 

 which are sometimes termed sand-heaths, are frequently 

 interrupted by tracts of Mallee. 



It was to be expected that there should be a free 

 interchange of natural products between countries so 

 similar as this and the Mediterranean and California. 

 From Europe, Australia took the vine, the olive, the 

 orange, and indeed most of its fruit-trees, while it sent 

 back eucalyptus, acacia, and a large number of other 

 shrubs and ornamental perennials. Quite naturally, 

 these Australian Rivieras are developing along the same 

 lines as the Mediterranean and Californian, with which 

 they compete as regards the vine, orange, and other 

 fruits. 



Savana Woods. Perhaps the most extensive and the 

 most useful plant- formation of Australia, as it is also 

 the most characteristic, is the eucalyptus savana. 



Africa has the baobab, the ceiba, and the borassus 

 palm, and many leaf-shedding trees in its savanas ; 

 South America possesses also savana woods of the 

 deciduous type; but Australia possesses in the euca- 

 lyptus an evergreen timber-tree of the greatest beauty 



