HORN EXPEDITION — BOTANY. 119 



exist no sucli foatures as could possibly maintain, undor existing cinulitions, a 

 fauna or flora of a sulvalpino (ir cold temperature clime ; the region lacks even 

 tiiose cond)inations to modify to any (wtent its species. Nevertheless the region 

 is not without interest ; ind(>ed one cannot escape the conviction that its endemic 

 flora is in a state of decadence, and is heing supplanted by an aggressi\e vegeta- 

 tion, exotically derived. Moreover, its pliysiography is unique and on a giand 

 scale. 



Having thus little hope of the discovery of botanical novelties, also because of 

 extensive botanical explorations previously made, T determined very early on the 

 journey to concentrate my eH'orts in the direction of studying the facts aufl 

 problem.s of geogi-aphic distrii)ution. The geographic references of many of the 

 recorded .species had to Ije revised, as such locations as "between the Alberga and 

 McDonnell Ilange," "lietween Lake Eyre and Alice Springs," and others, aic too 

 vague to be of special value; whilst anotiier discordant factor, happily less frequent 

 of late, is that which attributes the locality of a plant to the place whence the 

 specimen was transmitted to the recorder. 



(h) Salient Jniftiiiic Features of tlie North Ereiiiia)i Rei:;i<>>i. — The dominant 

 featui'e of the Central Pji'cmian I'egion is the prevalence of salsolaceous plants, 

 especially over the stony plains and loamy flats ; in the LarapintiiH" region they 

 are replaced by grasses, and of these a spet-ies of Triodia ("porcupine grass " or, 

 incorrectly, " spinifex " of exploi-ers and residents) donun.-itcs sandy ground and 

 the sterile slopes and tops of the sandstone table-lands. The arboreous vegetation 

 is I'cpresented by Casuariiia Decaisiieana (desert oak'), Grevillea striata (sillcy oak), 

 Bracliyeliitoii Grei:;ofii, Ficus platypnda, Eucalvptiis teniii/ia/is, E. Old field ii, Caii- 

 tliiiiiii latifdiion, I^ivisloiia Afariif, Fneephalartos Maedo/i/wlli and othi-rs, which 

 are either restricted to thi' region oi' do not pass beyond its southern boundary. 

 Acacia Fariiesiana, Atalaya Jieiitiy^laiiea, Fiiealyptiis tessellaris, and F. ^^aiitophvlla 

 are prevalent, though they reach into the noi'tliern ji.-u-ts of the Central ha-emi.-m 

 region. Cassia eremophila and Fucalvptiis iiiierotlieca, wdiich ai'e very chai'acteristic 

 of the central region, are largely replaced in the northern one by C. phyllodinea 

 and E. rostrata respectively. 



(() The Ijnvlaud I'ei^etatio?!. — This conqirises that of the river-banks, the 

 loamy plains and sandy ground. It consists, in the greater part, of sjiecies widely 

 didused throughout the Eremian I'cgion, extcuuling fa.i- south in South Australia, 

 eastward into New South Wales find South-west (^)ueensland, and westward to the 

 shore.s of mid AVestern Australia. This port-ion of the riar.i[)intine llora- oflei-s 

 considerable similarity to that of Shark's J'>ay, as enumerated liy i'.a.i'on I'", von 



