THE GENUS XANTHORRHOEA IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 
Rif L). A. 1 1 Ki? UKiiT, M.So., Economic Botanist and Plant Patholo- 
gist, Analytical Department. Perth. 
Head December 14///, 1920. 
The genus Xantliorrlioea adds to the Mora of South-Western 
Australia one of its most striking* and decorative characteristics. 
The dominant species is A anlliorrhoea Preissii , the 1 > lack boy, 
which though fairly distinct as a species, has such a wide range of 
distribution over widely different types of soils and through dif- 
ferent conditions of moisture and rainfall that its different 
forms have produced a rather polymorphic species. These 
have resulted in the proposal of a number of species which on 
field examination are found to merge into one another or to be mere 
local variations of the ordinary type. Such are X. pecoris, E. v. 
M., and A. Brunonis, Endl. (Plantae Preissianae 11, 39). Another 
doubtful species is A. Drwnmondii, llarvev (Hooker’s Kew Journal 
of Botany VI 1., 57) the description and account of which is as 
follows: — 
Liliacese. 
A (nd/torrhoea Drummondi, ITarv.; trunco elato sim- 
plici, foliis rectangule tetrang'onis, amen to cylindrico longis- 
simo (4j — 8) pedali), braeteis fasciculorum (lore subbrevior- 
ibus apice barbatis, perigonii foliolis imberbibus. 
ITab. On dry hills, near Perth and elsewhere. This 
is the largest and finest of the genus, and produces the 
most valuable gum. It is readily known from the 
common Blackboy (X. Preissii) by the square, instead of 
rhomboidal section of its leaves, which are of a bluish 
green colour and far less brittle. 
Harvey’s type comes from the Swan River, and the main differ- 
ences from X. Preissii are in field characters. It is probable that 
this species is identical with X. reflexa , D.A.IT. (Proe. Roy. Soe. 
V r .A. VI., part 1, S3) which, (hough typically an Avon species, 
also occurs scattered through the Swan River area amongst X. 
Preissii. The description, however, is too vague to make sure 
of this point. 
X. Preissii probably attains its greatest dimensions on the 
coastal country from King George’s Sound to the Leeuwin. Here 
specimens of 20 feet or more in height are of common occurrence, 
and the caudex may have as many as forty branches. One speci- 
