271 



Species. 



W.A. 



S.A. 



N.T. 



T. 



V. 



N.S.W. 



Q. 



vernicosa ... 

 viminalis ... 

 virgata 

 vitrea 





1 

 1 





1 



1 



1 

 1 



1 

 1 



1 



1 



Watsoniana 

 Wehsteriana 

 Westoni ... 

 Whitei 

 Woodwardi 



1 

 1 



... 



... 



... 



... 



1 



1 

 1 



xauthonema 



1 















Yagobiei ... 



Yarraensis 







... 





i 



1 





Tropical Species. 

 The tropical areas of Australia, going from west to east, include :— 



1. North-western Western Australia ; Pindan. 



2. Northern Territory. 



3. Northern Queensland. 



In the Climographs of Griffith Taylor, the following lie entirely within the tropics, 

 viz., W.l, K.l, K.2, Q.l, Q.2. The southern boundary line between Q.2 and Q.3 is 

 the tropic. 



The term " Pindan " being occasionally used in defining the class of country a 

 few species of tropical Eucalypts frequent or avoid, in North- Western Australia (W.l), 

 I wrote to the Surveyor-General of that State, who obligingly replied as follows : — 



1. The word seems to have been applied by the natives of the Kimberley region to certain country 

 lying back from the rivers, the natives inhabiting these areas being called "Pindan" natives, to destinguish 

 them from those living along the rivers. 



2. The term is never applied to the country along the rivers, nor to the rich black soil plains lying 

 back from them, but refers mainly to that back country consisting of sandy loam or sand and gravel, covered 

 with scrub and thickets, and being generally poor grazing country. 



3. The word '"Pindan" may be applied to vegetation, as for instance a wattle growing in the pindan 

 country may be called a "Pindan" wattle, or thickets " Pindan" thickets, &c. 



4. There is no doubt that the term "Pindan" applies to country, and not to timber, except as stated 

 in paragraph 3 above. It applies only to the Kimberley region, and I believe there is no Pindan country 

 in East Kimberley. 



5. I enclose extracts from the New Volumes of (a) the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," and (b) a Geolo- 

 gical Report by Mr. E. T. Hardman bearing on the question, (a) (10th Edition, vol. xxxiii, p. 823.) 



To the Pliocene belong the "Pindan," large sandy plains developed on each side of the river Fitzroy, 

 and stretching away to the southward into Warburton's Desert, and constituting also the great sandy 

 plains of the interior, which form one of the characteristic features of West Australia. 



{b). "Geology of Kimberley District" (1884), p. 14, par. 92. — Pindan Sands and Gravels. These, 

 which are named in consequence of their occurrence chiefly in the wooded country which the natives term 

 "Pindan." 



The question reached Mr. W. Catton Grasby, F.L.S., Agricultural editor of the 

 Western Mail, (Perth) in due course, and in this paper of 25th January, 1923, he printed 

 a mass of information on the subject, and invited his readers to supplement it. 

 G 



