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November in a cloud of delicate white bloom. Melaleuca 

 acuminata and M. ericifolia form occasionally dense thickets, 

 . but the latter only in company of malice wherever it approaches 

 the shore. This is the largest of its kind here, mostly forming 

 arborescent shrubs, eminently social, and covering considerable 

 tracts almost exclusively, but also growing into trees some ten 

 or fifteen feet high. It likewise flourishes on the Muloowurtie 

 Hills (Ardrossan marble). Upon it Loranthus Melaleuca is 

 found parasitically ; at the last mentioned locality profusely ; 

 near Ardrossan seldom. On dry watercourses the graceful 

 JEremopTiila longifolia is sometimes met with. It is a tree about 

 ten or twelve feet high, with pendent branches and large 

 yellowish red flowers in great number ; also groups of Scaevola 

 spinescens and Lycium australe occur; the former of ten infested 

 with hairy galls, looking like tufts of white wool. The mallee- 

 scrub — here principally formed of only two species, Eucalyptus 

 oleosa and E. gracilis ; while another, E. uncinata, is more 

 local — covers the greater part of the interior, sometimes ex- 

 tending to the very edge of the shore cliffs, either for some 

 distance or only lining the banks of watercourses. In its 

 company is then found the fine ornamental shrub, Alyxia 

 buxifolia, with dark green glabrous leaves (whitish yellow when 

 young), white spiral flowers, and bright red berries. The latter 

 are very attractive for the eye, but obnoxious to the taste. This 

 shrub sometimes forms close thickets, even ou the incline of 

 the shore. The native peach, Santalum acuminatum, and the 

 popularly termed " poison tree," Eittosporum pliillyrceoides, are 

 plentiful. The profuse red or orange coloured berries of the 

 latter are bitter, but not poisonous ; thus the popular name is 

 a misnomer. 



A remarkable plant is Exocarpus aphylla, which seems to repre- 

 sent savage obduracy as a shrub, with inextricably intertwined 

 stems and branches, no leaves, thickly-set thousands of minute 

 flowerets, and abominably bitter red berries ; and as a stunted 

 tree, appears to picture, with its pendent, stiff, dead-looking 

 branches, the hopeless despair of one lost in these dreary 

 thickets. At the foot and along the face of the cliffs, where- 

 ever offering a hold, Atriplex cinereus, Nitraria Schoberi, and 

 Tetragonia implex icome, with other salsolaceous plants, Myo- 

 porxim insulate and Aster axillaris flourish. The last is a tall 

 shrub and forms large thickets, with Bursaria spinosa in sandy 

 beaches, beyond the reach of high water, occasionally interspersed 

 with Casuarina quadrivalvis, and (but rarely) Erenela verrucosa, 

 which latter prefers higher sandy or rocky soil generally. 

 Wherever the scanty surface-waters of the land find exit at 

 the foot of the cliffs under the sea sand, Scirpus nodosus indi- 

 cates its existence, while the drier dunes are fixed by the rami- 



