Australian Flowering Plants. 177 



legumes and myrtles are Bicinocarpus (Euphorbiaceae), West- 

 ringia (Labiatae), Persoonia (Proteaceae), Grevillea (Pro- 

 teacese), Hakea (Proteaceae), Acacia (Mimosaceae), Kunzea 

 (Myrtaceae), Melaleuca (Myrtaceae), Viminaria (Papilio- 

 naceae), Casuarina (Casuarinaceae), Banksia (Proteaceae), 

 Leucopogon (Epacridacea3), Candollea (Candolleacese), Erios- 

 temon (Kutaceae), all easily classified once they have burst into 

 flower, but all riddles to the foreign botanist until they have 

 flowered. 



Again, the vast genera of the world generally, such as Piper, 

 Eugenia, Cassia, Euphorbia, Senecio, Carex, Psychotria, and 

 Phyllanthus, rarely possess numerous species in Australia. The 

 exceptions are Acacia (450 species), Phyllanthus (50 species), 

 Cassia (30 species), and a few others, but these have been so 

 modified to suit the Australian soil and climate that they appear 

 as distinct genera in the great majority of instances, so far as 

 their foliage is concerned. Acacia indeed, of the phyllodineous 

 type, and some Cassias, would never be recognized as such by 

 extra-Australian students, in the absence of fruits and flowers. 

 The few members of the great cosmopolitan genera which 

 occur within Australia on the hungry sandstones mostly retain 

 traces of their ancestry in the possession of pinnate leaves, 

 dwarfed, battered and bedraggled, it is true, but nevertheless 

 standing in striking contrast with their surroundings, like 

 broken-down aristocrats ill at ease among hungry and unclothed 

 savages, but still clinging to the rags and shreds of respectability 

 (Examples, Breynia, Panax and Cupania). 



Again, the great genera of Australia, that is, the genera, 

 or sub-genera, peculiarly Australian, such as Eucalyptus, the 

 phyllodineous Acacias, Grevillea, Hakea, Hibbertia, Goode- 

 nia, Candollea, Pimelea, Pultenwa, Leucopogon, Malaleuca, 

 Bceckea, Daviesia, Persoonia, Banksia, Dryandra, Eremophila, 

 Bossicea, and many others, do not occur in the sheltered jungle 

 areas, but are to be found most abundantly on the hungry 

 sandy and extremely siliceous soils, especially in southwestern 

 Australia, where not only are the endemic species most 

 numerous but many genera are endemic to that region in 

 addition to possessing more than their share of species in the 

 genera endemic in Australia generally. 



All this being so, with our knowledge concerning these 

 specialized xerophytes, which are all endemic in Australia, but 

 absent from the areas of mesophytic and jungle growths, which 

 are all, moreover, vigorous, large and aggressive genera, almost 

 all confined to or, at least, in their true home, on the hungry 



