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A. A. HAMILTON. 



are confined to New South Wales and the two neighbouring 

 States. The preponderance of species extending north, 

 over those found south of Port Jackson, is at least 25% in 

 favour of the northern localities. The oversea species — 

 indigenous and alien — are chiefly beach-dune plants. The 

 absence of bulbous plants from the shoreline is particularly 

 noticeable. Most of the plants noted approach within one 

 hundred yards of the strand on the dunes, and a similar 

 distance from the shoreline on the headland. The speci- 

 mens mounted to illustrate this paper will be presented to 

 the National Herbarium. 



Southward from Turimetta Head, Long Reef Beach, 

 locally named Collaroy Beach, enters upon a comparatively 

 flat area bare of vegetation, such as. is usually found at 

 either end of the ocean beaches, which is here bisected by 

 the channel at the entrance to Narrabeen Lake. From the 

 southern margin of the stream, the dune embankment rises 

 with an easy grade, the sand waves at its base beset by 

 outlying trailers of Spinifex, among which are sprinkled a 

 few tufts of Festuca littoralis. Prominent on the crest of 

 the embankment is the bunchy Xcrotes longifolia R. Br., 

 a ubiquitous species which can accommodate itself to an 

 exposed position on the seaboard, or a bald ridge on the 

 highest elevations of the Blue Mountains, and is equally at 

 home in a sheltered nook in a rich southern Illawarra brush. 

 On the dune front it frequently chooses the crown of a 

 knoll, or the saddle of a ridge, upon which to found a colony. 

 In such situations the plants are closely packed, those in 

 the centre of the cluster uplifted by the pressure of their 

 brethren in the outer ring. On the sheltered rearward 

 slopes the plant clusters, though retaining the gregarious 

 habit, are more open, the necessity for a close formation 

 disappearing with the reduction of exposure. The tough, 

 leathery consistence of the leaves renders frequent renewals 

 unnecessary, their persistence imposing a minimum strain 



