PAST^ PRESENT, AND FUTURE OP THE AUSTRALIAN PLORA. 123 



flora, and will long conliniTe as memorials of the author's 

 artistic skill. 



The Goodeniacege, Malvaceae, and Liliacege, have numerous 

 representatives in most parts of Australia. The elegant 

 Lesche.nanltia .splendens (Kook.), with its characteristic stigma, 

 the pretty and strongly scented Boronia serrulata (Sm.). and 

 B. mec/astigma (Nees), the gigantic Bori/cmthes excelsa (Corr.j,. 

 and the pure Crinum, the showy species of Hibiscus and 

 Gossy2num — all of these display the glory of their respective 

 orders. So also the rivers of the North are enJivened by 

 the variously coloured petals of NymjDliwa gigantea (Hook.), 

 and the delicate tints oi A^elmnhium siieciosum (Willd.) ; whilst 

 the lofty conifers Araucaria Cunningliami (Ait.), and A. B'ul- 

 zvillii (Hook.), and the palm-like tree ferns {Alsophila aiistralisy 

 Brown), and A. excelsa (Brown), impart a semi-tropical 

 character to the regions in which they abound. Of the true 

 palms, Ptj/cJiosperma Cunninghami (AVendl.), and Livistona aus- 

 tralis (]\lueller) are rapidly disappearing in the settled districts^ 

 but in unfrequented places in Northei-n Queensland, and also 

 at Lord Howe's Island, several species of Ptijcliosperma and 

 Kentia still flourish in all their graceful beauty. 



Great changes are going on in the Vegetable Kingdom 

 throughout the world, and though many of those changes 

 are not perceptible to the present generation, a reference to 

 past history wull inform us that regions once covered with 

 forests have become desolate wildernesses, and unfruitful soil 

 has been made subservient to the purposes of cultivation, 

 and that species of plants which once flourished in some 

 particular country have long ceased to do so. What occurred 

 in geological periods, when, by the uplifting or depression of 

 the earth's crust, the flora of many countries became 

 differentiated or made way for other forms, is going on 

 gradually still ; and it is certain thist, in the course of genera- 

 tions to come, as the flora of Australia was very different in 

 ages past from what it now is, so a new order of plants may 

 arise and take the place of the great orders which at the 

 present period flourish on the continent. A reference to the 

 vegetable fossils which have been found in the auriferous 

 drifts of New South Wales and Victoria makes this supposi- 

 tion highly probable. 



AVithout contemplating, however, those stupendous changes 

 which must have occurred since many genera, now called 

 exotic, connected the Tertiary Flora of Australia with that of 

 northern and tropical America and Oceanica (Ettinghausen),. 



