TEMPEEATE ELOEAS 41 



distinct floras meet and intermingle. But as the Valais is 

 nearly as rich as Sikhim, and Susa with one-fourth the area 

 is still richer^ it is quite possible that smaller areas may 

 be found as rich as that of the Cape Peninsula. The best 

 third of the Susa district would probably approach closely 

 if it did not quite equal it. Temperate Australia is another 

 country which has obtained a high reputation for its floral 

 riches, for much the same reason as the Cape of Good Hope. 

 In 1810 Robert Brown made known the extreme interest 

 of the Australian flora, both from its numerous hitherto un- 

 known types of vegetation and the variety and beauty of its 

 flowering shrubs. It was therefore supposed that the country 

 was not only botanically rich in new species and genera, but 

 actually so in the number of its species in proportion to area, 

 and this may really be the case with limited portions of West 

 Australia (for which I have been able to obtain no detailed 

 information), but is certainly not the case for Xew South 

 Wales, Victoria, or Tasmania. Cumberland County, which 

 contains Sydney and the celebrated Botany Bay, is only a 

 little richer than our counties of about the same area, while 

 the celebrated district of Illawarra only produces about the 

 same number of plants as does Middlesex, which has, ex- 

 clusive of London, a less area. Many parts of Europe in a 

 similar latitude are much more productive. 



There is, however, one world-wide group of plants in 

 which, as regards small areas, eastern temperate Australia 

 seems to be pre-eminent — that of terrestrial Orchids. Mr. 

 H. Bolus, in his work on the Orchids of the Cape Peninsula, 

 states that there are 102 species in an area of 197 square 

 miles ; and he quotes Mr. Eitzgerald, the authority on the 

 Orchids of Australia, that " within the radius of a mile '' he 

 remarks, " certainly no such concentration would be found 

 on the Cape Peninsula." I think it probable that the 

 " radius of a mile '' is meant a mile bevond the citv and 

 suburbs of Svdnev, in which case it mio'ht bo an area of 

 from 10 to 20 square miles. Or it might mean a picked 



