CH. VII. ] NEW SPECIES OF CASSIA. 289 



which were tolerably firm. On my way, however, I saw 

 nothing new as to ground. The clay plains were bounded 

 by a ridge of red sand (extending south-west and north- 

 east), at a distance of four miles. On this ridge were divers 

 casuarinae, and beyond it, was a low polygonum hollow, and 

 a water-course in which water evidently sometimes ran 

 north-east (! ), and a duck-net stake, fixed opposite to a tree, 

 still remained there. It appeared that in all these side chan- 

 nels, or tributaries of the Darling, the water flowed upwards, 

 or from the river, a circumstance not unlikely to happen 

 where the main channel rolls the accumulated waters of dis- 

 tant regions through absorbent plains, on which partial rains 

 can have but little effect. 



At about eight miles, we reached firm gravel, consisting of 

 small and very hard stones, precisely similar in character 

 and position to that near Mount INIurchisson. The pebbles 

 were mixed with red earth, which also formed part of the 

 lower features connected with the heio;ht before us. We 

 crossed a deep gully, the bed of a creek in rainy seasons, 

 but which had now been long dried up. The very hard 

 sandstone still appeared, weathered to a purple colour ; the 

 lower part was most ferruginous, and not so hard as above ; 

 in the creek below, I observed a red crust of clay, and nodules 

 of iron-stone. There were several rocky and deep ravines in 

 the side of the principal height, and in these the oat-grass, or 

 anthistiria, appeared, (for the first time since we had left 

 the upper Bogan), also several plants, which were new to me, 

 and among them a bush of striking beauty, with a rich yel- 

 low flower, being a species of cassia* The summit of Mount 

 Macpherson was clear, but it did not afford the view I ex- 

 pected. The height consisted of some ridges, which did 



* This plant was found by Mr. Cunningham in 1817, on Mount Flinders, 

 when he called it C. teretifolia. Dr. Lindley has described it as follows : — 



C. teretifolia (Cnnnmgh.lA'SS,.), incano-tomentosa, foliis pinnatis 5-6-jugis 

 eglandulosis : foliolis teretibus filiformibus obtusis, paniculis terminalibus, ra- 

 mulis corymbosis sub-o-floris, bracteolis ovatis obtusis concavis calycibusque 

 tomentosis. 



1 U 



