TOPOGRAPHICAL, ECOLOGICAL, AND TAXONOMIC NOTES. 315 



punicea R. Br., is limited to the coast, extending from the 

 Hawkesbury River to Port Hacking. Hemigenia purpurea 

 R. Br. is found as far south as Dapto, and has ascended the 

 Blue Mountains to Linden. The divaricately branched 

 Podocarpus spinulosa R. Br., which extends south to Con- 

 jola, has followed the course of George's River to Liver- 

 pool, and ascended the southern highlands to Picton. The 

 rigid, exposure resistant, " Honey Flower," Lambertia 

 formosa Sm., has a lengthy coastal range, and surmounts 

 the western slopes of the dividing range at New England, 

 the Blue Mountains, and the southern highlands. Pultencea 

 elllptica Sm., ranges coastally from Bermagui toMorrisset 

 and reaches Barber's Greek on the southern highlands, and 

 Leura on the Blue Mountains. 



A further series of species (five) which occur on the 

 hillside and are found in New Soutli Wales and Queensland 

 only are as follows: — Aetinotus Helianthi Labill., the 

 "Flannel Flower." The plants of this popular favorite r 

 though usually scattered, occasionally form eompactassocia- 

 tions. The close Colonisation of an area by this species is 

 reminiscent of the apparently spontaneous occurrence in a 

 district of certain well known aliens, which flourish luxuri- 

 antly for a period, after which the plants lose their vigour^ 

 and the colony disintegrates, or in some instances entirely 

 disappears. Its congener A. minor DO., a prostrate herb, 

 does not depart from its solitary habit. On the headland 

 Phyllota phylicoides Benth., is dwarfed, its woody root- 

 stock spreading laterally and sending up numerous short 

 twiggy stems. In the sheltered gullies on the lower slopes 

 on the Blue Mountains it assumes an erect habit, and 

 softens the asperity of its foliage. Olax strlcta R. Br., a 

 graceful shrub with an open, distichously arranged, branch- 

 ing habit, and the heath-leaved Philotheca australis Rudge, 

 whose range extends far into the interior, completes this 

 group. 



