32 



It also flourishes on adjacent gneiss, but wherever seen it 

 seems to indicate the said rock in close proximity. The 

 settlers call it " broom," and we use it for covering sheds, &c. 

 jExocarpus spartea, among others, is also found in the primary 

 regions chiefly. 



There are some plants very remarkable for their variability. 

 [Foremost among them is JEutaxia empetrifolia . The typical 

 form is a low shrub, with very small pointed leaves, not very 

 closely set, the branchlets almost at right angles ; its yellow 

 flowers have numerous dark streaks. The whole shrub seldom 

 exceeds twelve inches in height ; the stem is rarely thicker 

 than a goosequill, and is found on all formations. Near the 

 Parara Mine, on ferruginous micaceous schist, it appears in a 

 totally different form, entirely prostrate, and closely pressed 

 to the ground. The longer, narrower leaves are densely 

 crowded along the numerous short branchlets, the flowers much 

 more numerous and larger, and the whole plant presenting 

 quite a different aspect. Along the Maitland road, on granitic 

 or quartzitic soil, it assumes a much larger form, attaining 

 from two to three feet in height. The branchlets are not 

 numerous, very supple and thin ; the leaves soft, and about a 

 quarter to half an inch long ; the flowers of a pale yellow. It 

 frequently grows side by side with the first mentioned form, 

 thereby forcibly exhibiting the great contrast between them. 

 To this large form the name Sclerothamnus diffusus had been 

 given, but it has been reduced to the rank of a variety, on 

 account, as Baron F. v. Mueller says, of numerous insensible 

 gradations from one into the other having been discovered at 

 different localities. Waldenbergia gracilis, the " native blue- 

 bell," varies in size from two inches high and a minute floweret 

 (var. quadrifidci) to fifteen or sixteen inches in height, and a 

 usually blue flower of more than an inch in diameter. A large 

 white flowering variety occurs here. Besides the difference in 

 the flower, the form of the leaves also varies greatly. 



Yittadinia australis, common everywhere on open ground, 

 presents at least four well-marked varieties in flower and leaf. 

 The leaves of the typical Billardiera cymosa are smooth and 

 dark green, whereas those of the variety sericoplwra are densely 

 covered with white hairs on both sides. 



Of other notable forms either in flowers or leaf, the most 

 conspicuous are Comesperma volubilis, Prostaiithera coccinea, and 

 Eremopliila Bromiii. Of variable Orchids may be mentioned 

 Caladenia pulcJierrima, of which C. Patersoni, R. Br., is one 

 variety, but three others oceur, different in colour and form. 

 Caladenia deformis varies in colour from blue to pink. 



Only one new species has as yet been discovered by me, viz., 

 a small Orchid, in respect of which Baron I\ v. Mueller, has . 



