ON THE FLORA OF AUSTRALIA. 
General Remarks. 
The Flora of Australia has been justly regarded as the most remarkable that is known, owing 
to the number of peculiar forms of vegetation which that continent presents. So numerous indeed 
are the peculiarities of this Flora, that it has been considered as differing fundamentally, or in 
almost all its attributes, from those of other lands; and speculations have been entertained that 
its origin is either referable to another period of the world's history from that in which the existing 
plants of other continents have been produced, or to a separate creative effort from that which 
contemporaneously peopled the rest of the globe with its existing vegetation ; whilst others again 
have supposed that the climate or some other attribute of Australia has exerted an influence on 
its vegetation, differing both in kind and degree from that of other climates. One of my objects 
in undertaking a general survey of the Australian Flora, has been to test the valne of the facts 
which have given rise to these speculations, and to determine the extent and comparative valne 
of a different and larger class of facts which are opposed to them, and which might also give some 
clue to the origin of the Flora, and thus account for its peculiarities. This I pursued under the 
impression that it is the same with the study of whole Floras as of single species or their organs, 
viz. that it is much easier to see peculiarities than to appreciate resemblances, and that important 
general characters which pervade all the members of a family or Flora, are too often overlooked or 
undervalued, when associated with more conspicuous differences which enable us to dismember them. 
The result has proved, as I anticipated, that, the great difficulty being surmounted of collecting all 
the materials and so classifying them as to allow of their being generalized upon, the peculiarities 
of the Flora, great though they be, are found to be more apparent than real, and to be due to a 
multitude of specialities affecting the species, and to a certain extent the genera, but not extending 
to the more important characteristics of the vegetation, which is not fundamentally different from 
that of other parts of the globe. 
Before proceeding to the discussion of the elements of the Australian Flora, I shall shortly de- 
scribe its general character, viewed in the double light of a peculiar vegetation and as a part of the 
existing Flora of the globe. Its chief peculiarities are :— 
That it contains more genera and species peculiar to its own area, and fewer plants belonging to 
other parts of the world, than any other country of equal extent. About two-fifths of its genera, and 
upwards of seven-eighths of its species are entirely confined to Australia. 
Many of the plants have a very peculiar habit or physiognomy, giving in some eases a cha- 
racter to the forest scenery (as Eucalypti, Acacia, Proteacece, Cawarttue, Conifer a), or are them- 
selves of anomalous or grotesque appearance (as Xanthorrhcea, Kingia, Delabechea, Casuarina, 
Banksia, Dryandra, etc.). 
A great many of the species have anomalous organs, as the pitchers of Cephalotus, the 
deciduous bark and remarkable vertical leaves of the Eucalypti, the phyllodia of Acacia, the fleshy 
peduncle of Exocarpus, the inflorescence and ragged foliage of many Proteacea. 
Many genera and species display singular structural peculiarities, as the ovules of Banksia, 
