343 



Another striking instance where apparently drainage is a dominant factor is in 

 the scrub areas occupied by the stunted vegetation of E. cosmophylla. Typically this 

 form is found in flat, badly drained tabletops, which are very wet in winter, and baked 

 hard and dry in the summer. The surrounding slopes are sometimes well covered 

 with fair Stringybark (E. obliqua), which rapidly falls off in height, and adopts a dwarf 

 scrub habit on approaching the edge of the E. cosmophylla areas, where it rapidly 

 disappears altogether. 



In general, the well-drained and gravelly slopes of the hillsides support a good 

 Stringybark vegetation, the wet clayey bottoms of considerable extent are characterised 

 by a Red Gum growth, and the margins of these flats, where they receive considerable 

 hill wash, and become more sandy, favour' the Manna Gum (E. viminalis). 



The flat clayey and gravelly table-tops, with occasional ironstone pans, are 

 typically covered with scrub, consisting of E. cosmophylla, &c. More limited areas of 

 low-lying flat country, with a shallow, sandy, clay soil on a light clay, with very poor 

 drainage, support a stunted growth of Blue Gum (E. leucoxylon) and Pink Gum (E. 

 fasciculosa), &c. This type of country appears to be the least promising from a timber 

 point of view. Dr. Teale acknowledges his indebtedness to Mr. S. L. Kessell in the 

 matter of the distribution of the native vegetation. 



E. vitrea R. T. Baker.— " A stunted form, with weeping habit, and grows in 

 low-lying country, under water in winter." (Penola, South Australia, Part X, p. 310.) 



New South Wales. — We now turn to " Climatic and Geological Influence on the 

 Flora of New South Wales," by R. H. Cambage, Rep. Aust. Assoc. Adv. Sci., XI, 473 

 (1907). 



He quotes T. W. Woodhead (Journ. Linn. Soc, XXXVII, 396), writing on the 

 Ecology of Woodland Plants near Huddersfield, England, as saying — 



" The present study inidcates that, in this- district, the physical properties of the soil and accom- 

 panying conditions, play a more important part in determining the character of plant-associations and the 

 distribution of species than the chemical composition of the soil." 



Mr. Cambage divides the flora of New South Wales into four divisions — (1) the 

 coastal area ; (2) the mountain area ; (3) the western slopes ; and (4) the interior. 

 He illustrates these divisions by a map. 



He deals with these divisions in detail, quoting (amongst other plants) the 

 Eucalypts, giving notes on the soils and on the height above sea-level the species reach. 

 He also discusses geological formations. The preferences of E. hemiphloia, which are 

 sometimes puzzling, are discussed. E. coriacea, E. piperita, E. dives, E. amygdalina, 

 E. radiata, E. albens, E. macrorrhyncha, and other species are most interestingly dealt 

 with, and there is a useful bibliography. 



" Botany as an Accessory to Surveying," the Presidential Address of Mr. R. H. 

 Cambage to the Institution of Surveyors, N.S.W., in The Surveyor, vol. XXI, pp. 6-16 

 (1908), is an address which amplifies the preceding one, and has the same map, but it 

 is by no means a duplicate of it. 

 E 



