130 A COKTEIBTJTION TO, ETC, 



from the base, or united into an entire or two lobed leaf, with five 

 to eleven digitate nerves. Three species are described in the 

 " Flora Australiensis," and since the publication of that work, a 

 fourth species with very small leaves has been found near the 

 Gulf of Carpentaria. Hovea longipes, Mitchell's H. leiocarpa, is 

 also on the Dawson, and, in some respects, resembles the species 

 near Sydney in the blue pea-shaped flowers and somewhat ovoid 

 pods ; but from the report of my friend, it is a much larger shrub, 

 the trunk being nearly two inches in diameter. The wood, when 

 polished, is rather ornamental, as it is marked with dark yellow 

 and brown streaks. This is the same shrub which Mitchell 

 noticed in a valley near the Belyamdo, which he says " was gay 

 with the ultramarine blue flowers" of the Hovea. The species of 

 Acacia seem to be very numerous in North-eastern Australia, and 

 two of them (A. homalophylla and A. pendula) have a dark 

 coloured fragrant wood, better known by the name of myall, 

 which the natives sometimes make into boomerangs, and the stock- 

 men into whip handles. The myall is often referred to by travel- 

 lers in Australia, and is distinguished by its abundance of yellow 

 flowers, silvery drooping branches, and the violet perfume of its 

 wood. My young friend sent me ten different species of Acacia 

 from the Darling Downs, and some of them (such as A. linifolia, 

 A. vomeriformis and A. cultriformis) are remark able for their wide 

 distribution. A. spectabilis, from the same quarter, resembles A. 

 discolor, which is abundant near Sydney, but the flowers are 

 brighter, and the leaflets not so numerous. Associated with these, 

 are two papilionaceous shrubs (Pultenaa foliosa and Indigofera 

 Australis), the former of which was collected by Cunningham, 

 near Wellington Valley, and by Fras3r, at the Lachlan ; the 

 leaves are very numerous and minute, and the flowers of an orange 

 colour. My learned friend Dr. F. Mueller has kindly determined 

 this species for me, and he also informs me that the little indigo, 

 which I had supposed to be a distinct species, is a mere variety of 

 7. Amtralis. I see that Mr. Bentham is of the same opinion 

 (Flora Aust. : vol. 2, p. 200), although no one who had not seen 

 the large suit of specimens which led to this conclusion, could 

 suppose that the diminutive plant in question was a mere variety 

 of the well known shrub of this district. Mr. Bentham reckons 

 five varieties, of which the one from the Darling Downs is var. L 



