Iviii. 
Charles Austin Gardner. 
A well-known result of epharmosis is the convergence of systematically 
removed types. Exam]des are to be found in certain plants, such as be- 
tween Ceriops and j^giceros, Accria ard Hclea, Acacia and Lavie^ia, 
Darwinia and Pintelea, Siegfriedia and Durwinia, Hihbertia and J^eiicopoyon, 
Hihhei'tia and Piittevaea, of wliich some species of one genus so closely resemble 
species of the other genus that, growing together they can only be se|:arated 
when in llower. The careful climatic grading of the Western Australian 
flora has resulted in numerous epharmonically moulded species and forms 
which attain to their highest de\elopment in tlie Eiemea where the ephar- 
monic convergence reaches a climax in which the species conforni to few 
general growth-form types. 
GROWTH FORMS. 
1. TREES AND SHRUBS. 
Trees and shrubs make U]) the greater part of the vegetation of WVstern 
Australia. Their importance is, however, greater in those areas dominated 
by the winter rainfall- — summer drought climate than in those areas in which 
summer rainfall prevails. It is especially true of the Soiith-West Province 
where the ])re]3onderance of shrubs is overwlielmingly great when comj'ared 
even to trees. 
One of the outstanding characteristics of the forest and woodland 
formations of South-AVestern Australia is the paucity of the tree species 
growing in intimate association, with one of them assuming tlie dominant 
role. This is particularly true of the karri, jarrah, and tuart forests where, 
subject to edaphic changes, the dominant tree suffers few or no competitors. 
For example, the tuart forest remains essentially jDure ; the jarrah tree 
almost so, except where the lateritic soil changes to sand, marri (EucaJyj)tus 
calophylla) assiimes prominence, while clay soils give rise to trees of wandoo. 
Tliere is, perliaps, nothing comparable to this uniformity of the s]X‘(-ies of 
the Eucalyptus forests and w'oodlands if we except the coniferous forests 
of tlie northern liemisidiere. The savannah (temperate) M^oodlantl form- 
ation is more mixed in its arborescent species, and Acacia acuminata, Eu- 
calyptus loxophleba and E. redunca var. elota become social species. It is 
only in the eastern sclerophyllous woodland areas that we find any real 
mixture of the tree species, and although all are species of Eucalyptus, we 
find a considerable mixture of species. In the Eastern goldfields areas we 
find many such examples : the trees may very closely resemble eacli otlier, 
such as E. Flocktoniae, E. BroeJewayi, E. transcontinentalis, E. salmonophloia, 
which are very much alike both in habit, bark, and foliage, or dissimilar 
species may grow' in intimate association. Between AVhdgiemooltha and 
Norseman, for examj)le, or between Mount Holland and the Bremer Range, 
one frecjuently finds as many as fifteen different species growing in asso- 
ciation under similar edaphic conditions. 
In the northern Province it is fjuite otherwise, for in the monsoon wood- 
land we find trees of different families, of very diversified growth-forms, 
even deciduous and evergreen, growing together. It is jjossible to find 
Callitris, Eucalyptus, ami Livistona assuming ecpial importance and growing 
together in a woodland association. 
While Eucalyptus, remains dominant in the South-AA^est, Acacia assumes 
the dominant role over the broad area of the Eremea, and in the Northern 
Province, especialh' in the Kimberley district, there is no dominant genus 
amongst the trees if we except the basaltic savannah, w'liere Eucalyptus 
becomes again dominant. The Eucalpyius trees of the north how'ever, remain 
highly diversified in both growth form and foliage. The dense spreading 
