THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 35 



places the. curious spruce-like growth of the vvaratah, sassafras, 

 and silver wattle, already referred to, was noted. 



With regard to negative features, perhaps the most striking is 

 the absence, in this western part, of Acacia verticillata and A. 

 juniperina (the latter is recorded by Mr. Stirling from further east, 

 on the Cann River), and of beech trees, whilst the blackwoods 

 [A. melanoxylon) are comparatively rare, and, when they do occur, 

 are but of small size. 



Amongst ferns there is a noticeable absence of Lomaria 

 cajyensis (only once seen), whereas it is elsewhere the commonest 

 of mountain-stream ferns. 



In his paper read before the Royal Society, Mr. Stirling has 

 divided the area under discussion into four separate regions, each 

 containing a more or less distinct series of forms. The regions 

 named by him are — (i) the coastal, (2) the inland, (3) the ridges, 

 (4) the sub-alpine. 



The coastal region certainly here, as elsewhere, may be 

 regarded as distinct from the rest of the country. At the same 

 time the line bounding it inland can be but vaguely drawn, and 

 it is worth while drawing attention again to the curious little 

 "outlier," as it were, of the inland vegetation found in a little 

 sheltered spot near Lakes' Entrance, and within a stone's-throw 

 of the sea. Perhaps this is a relic of the vegetation when what 

 is now the coastal region was inland — when the land stretched 

 further to the south than now it does. The difficulty is greater 

 when we come to deal with the inland part of the country. Mr. 

 Stirling recognizes two regions between the coastal and the more 

 open table-lands north of the Coast Range, and to which he 

 applies the name of " sub-alpine," Our observations lead to the 

 conclusion that the lists of plants which he gives as characteristic 

 respectively of these two regions are by no means peculiar to 

 either of the two — in fact nearly, if not quite, all of them were 

 found by ourselves growing with equal profusion either in the 

 gullies and river flats or on the ridges, and we find that not more 

 than three regions can be distinguished in the district, viz. — 

 (i) coastal, (2) inland, (3) sub-alpine. 



(i.) Tlie Coastal. — This extends from the seashore to, perhaps, 

 a distance of some five or six miles inland, and is distinguished 

 by the presence of the following forms. This list includes only 

 forms which do not occur in other parts, and which may hence 

 be regarded as distinctive of this region : — Leptospermum Icavi- 

 (jatiun, Stypliclia ricltei. Acacia longifolia, variety Sophora. xi. 

 suaveolots, Banksia integrifolia, Calocephalus broivnii, Aater 

 axillaris, Salicornia australis, Gakile viaritima, Cuscuia aics- 

 tralis, Mesembryanthemum australe, M. cequilaterale, distichills 

 maritima, Atrijylex cinereiom, Chenopodium micrale, Spini/ex 

 hirsiotus, Stipa tereti/olia, Tetragona implexicovia. 



