6 



Tea Tree Gully. At Victor Harbour the soil is also sandy 

 alluvium overlying the glacial deposits near the mouth of the 

 Hindmarsh River. At this last station some of the specimens 

 were found submerged to a depth of 6 cms. in a waterhole 

 caused by the removal of a tree stump. This pool only 

 contains water during the wet season. Most plants, however, 

 were growing in the open some distance from standing water. 

 In neither of the localities about Adelaide has Isoetes been 

 found submerged. The method of growth of the plant is 

 incidentally referred to below in discussing the plant com- 

 munity in which Phylloglossum occurs at Belair. 



It is unfortunate but inevitable that of the numerous 

 investigators of Phylloglossum only one (Thomas) had access 

 to material growing in the field. The information available as 

 to the natural occurrence of the plant is thus very slight. 



Thomas points out that the plant is not a semiaquatic 

 (12: p. 291). He says: "Phylloglossum, it is true, being a 

 very small plant, can only grow whilst the surface soil is fairly 

 moist, hence it forms a tuber and rests during the dry season. 

 So far as I have seen the plant grows rather better on a hill- 

 top, or at any rate it grows there at least as well as it does 

 down the slope, and I have never found it in an actual swamp. 

 It grows well on a slope where water can never lodge." 



The locality given in Cheeseman's Flora (4: p. 1033) is 

 "barren clay hills" in the North Island of New Zealand. 



In the account by Diels of the Western Australian 

 flora Phylloglossum is recorded amongst the "miniature" 

 plants (ephemerals) of the "alluvial formation" in the south- 

 west province (5: p. 256). This alluvial flora is included by 

 him in the "swamp formations." It is explained, however, 

 that the area is only a seasonal swamp. The soil retains the 

 rains, and for a time is saturated (das Land ilberschwemmen). 

 It dries slowly, and in the process becomes baked as hard as 

 a brick (p. 249). The tree vegetation is an open stand of 

 eucalypts (E. patens, E. rudis, or E. rostrata) with local 

 patches of melaleucas. The undergrowth may be shrubby, but 

 in areas in which the water lies for weeks together the shrubs 

 give place to undershrubs or herbs. These latter have a limited 

 growing period, since growth is at a standstill while the ground 

 is sodden, as also when it has dried up. The perennial 

 herbaceous plants of such an area have rhizomes or 

 other underground storage organs, e.g., tuberous droseras and 

 numerous Liliaceae and Orchidaceae. Annuals, especially 

 "miniature" annuals (ephemerals), occur together with the 

 bulbous plants. The similarity in composition between this 

 Western Australian flora and that of the South Australian 

 locality to be described is very striking. 



