ii4 PLANT GEOGRAPHY 



etc., extend to the Atlas, the west of the Iberian Penin- 

 sula, and so to Brittany and the west of the British Isles, 

 whilst their susceptibility to frost prevents their exten- 

 sion eastward, away from the insular west-coast climate 

 of the continent. These plants have been variously 

 termed an Armorican, Asturian, Lusitanian, Iberian, or 

 Atlantic flora. 



Equally South African in affinity are the scanty floras 

 of Ascension (7 S. lat.) Tristan d'Acunha (37 S.), 

 Amsterdam (38 S.), and St. Paul (39 S.), of which the 

 three first-named are connected by the South African 

 rhamnaceous genus Phylica, and the three last-named 

 by the grass Spartina arundinacea Carmich., although 

 Ascension is separated from Tristan d'Acunha by 30 of 

 latitude and the two small rocks of St. Paul and Am- 

 sterdam by 90 of longitude. 



AUSTRALIA. While northern Australia is tropical, 

 with summer rains, and is practically an extension of 

 the Indian Monsoon Region, between 19 and 29 S. a 

 sub-tropical, trade-wind, desert region separates this 

 area from the more distinctive south. In Tasmania, 

 where rain occurs at all seasons, and in the " fern-gullies" 

 of Victoria, which resemble the " kloofs " of Southern 

 Natal, we have a Temperate Rain-forest, that, with 

 Eucalypti, Acacias, and the evergreen Fagus Cunning- 

 hamii Hook., hung with the climbing grass Tetrarrhena 

 juncea R. Br., is specially rich in Ferns. With the 

 cosmopolitan Bracken (Pteris aquilina L.), the moisture- 

 loving Hymenophyllum tunbridgense Sm., Gleichenia, 

 and Davallia, are the arborescent Dicksonia antarctica 

 Labill. and Alsophila australis R. Br. Most of the 

 forests of east, south-east, and south-west Australia 

 are of an open savannah type, although many of the 

 Eucalypti, which are typically sclerophyllous and of a 

 dreary glaucous hue, and constitute three-quarters of 

 the forests, are exceptionally lofty trees (Fig. 10). These 

 forests graduate into " scrub " with thickets of shrubby 

 "Wattles" or Acacias; Proteads, such as Grevillea, 

 Hakea, and Banksia , She-oaks (Casuarina), Epacrids, 

 Bur sera, and others; whilst the " Black-boys " or Grass- 

 trees Xanthorrhea and Kingia grow, with the Cycads, on 

 the borders of the grassy savannah of the interior (Fig. 1 1 ). 

 This, which during the rainy season is adorned with 

 numerous Lilies and other bulbs and terrestrial Orchids, 



