350 A. A. HAMILTON. 



nata Sm., a species with xerophytic, papery petalled flowers 

 and protective sheathing based leaves, is even more closely 

 confined to this habitat. 



On the exposed hillside facing the ocean, a fire had 

 recently burned off the scrub, and several species were 

 making characteristically enlarged new growth (reversion 

 shoots). The increased size of the leaves of the young 

 growth of Ruelingia hermannicefolia Steetz., which have 

 retained their luxuriance until the plants have reached the 

 flowering stage, are in marked contrast to the harsh 

 scanty foliage of the older plants unscathed by the fire. 

 The new crop olAmperea spartioides Brongn., whose leaves 

 under normal conditions are reduced to scales, is amply 

 clothed with obovate leaves. Plants of Lasiopetalum 

 ferrugineum Sm., visited by the fire, have developed leaves 

 much broader and more cordate at the base than those on 

 the uninjured plants. [The Blue Mountain form of this 

 species, L. rubiginosum A. Ounn., reduced by Bentham, PI. 

 Austr. i, 263, to a var. of L. ferrugineum, maintains the 

 broad cordate leaf in the adult stage of growth.] 



Some outlying plants of Conospermum ellipticum Sm., 

 creep down the hillside towards the escarpment, but it is 

 much more plentiful a few miles further inland. It has a 

 short coastal range from Port Jackson to the Illawarra, 

 and is recorded from the Blue Mountains, but the latter 

 locality is somewhat doubtful. 1 Two Opercularias, O. 

 diphylla Gaertn., with short stout branches and an erect 

 habit, and O. aspera Gaertn., usually a trailer but here 

 restricted to a divaricate tuft, were found associated in a 

 soil pocket. 



On a small sand-patch at the base of the escarpment on 

 the southern headland of Botany Bay, Convolvulus soldan- 

 ella was noted climbing to a height of several feet through 



1 Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, xl, p. 407 (1915). 



