88 BOTANY OF THE 



with grasS; a few creeping' plants and stunted bushes 

 on one hand^— and on the other a high, rocky, well- 

 wooded island with an undulating succession of hills 

 and valleys. In those of the latter class, to a certain 

 extent only in the islands of Rockingham Bay, hut 

 in a very striking degree in those to the northward, 

 there is so great a similarity in the vegetation, that 

 an illustration of the botany may be taken from one 

 of the Barnard Isles, No. III.— exhibiting what 

 may be termed an Indo- Australian Flora. 



The upper margin of the coral beach is overrun 

 with Ipomoea maritima, a large purple-flowered 

 SossicBa, and some other leguminous plants, of 

 which the handsomest is Canvallia Baueriana, a 

 runner with large rose-coloured flowers. To these 

 succeeds a row of bushes of SccBvola Kcenigii, and 

 Tournefortia argentea, with an occasional Ouettarda 

 speeiosa, or Morinda citrifolia, backed by thickets 

 of Paritium Tiliaceum, and other shrubs supporting 

 large ConvolvulacecB, vine-like species of Cissus ; 

 Guilandina Bonduc, a prickly CcBsalpinia, Beerin- 

 gia Ccelosioides, and a variety of other climbers. 

 Penetrating this shrubby border, one finds himself in 

 what in New South Wales^would be called sCjbrush 

 or scrub, and in India a jungle, extending over the 

 greater part of the island. Overhead are trees of 

 moderate size, whose general character is constituted 

 by a nearly"straight'stem, seldom branching except 

 near the top, and fornished with glossy dark green 

 leaves. Interspersed with them there are many 



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