The Vegetation of Western Australia. 
\xi. 
successive annual shoots can be ascertained by the number of the successive 
infructescences . 
The production of short lateral leafy shoots at the nodes is a characteristic 
growth form of several Myrtaceae, Dilleniaceae, and Proteaceae, especially 
in Hibbertia and Dryandra. This leads to the formation of slender elongated 
branches or stems densely crowded with abbreviated leafy shoots often bearing 
terminal flowers. It is seen to advantage in Hakea ruscifolia, in Hibbertia 
teretifolia^ and in some species of Dryandra. 
Finally, there are the chamaephytes whicli develop a marked plagio- 
tropism in their growth. These are mainly the plants W'hich rise but little 
above the soil, or are so closely pressed against it that they form dense mat- 
like or cushion-like growths. They are typifled by Astroloma, Dodonaea Acacia 
pulvhiiformis, Leschenaidtia Jormosa and L. Hibiflora, Scaevola. pulvinaris, 
and species of Dampiera in the wet clay or sandy-clay soils of the southern wood- 
lands in which Eucalyptus occidentalis is the dominant tree. On the sand- 
heaths of the southern littoral occur Leschenaultia, Scaevola, Eremophila and 
Banksia. In the clay soils of the areas between Norseman and Grasspatch 
many examples occur in Acacia and Eremophila, while to the north the chamae- 
phytes are perhaps best developed in the sandy or lateritic areas, Leschenaultia 
macraniha and species of Darwinia, together with Actinostrobus acuminatus 
being typical examples. In the case of Banksia repens, B. prostrata, and B. 
Goodii, the stems are usually covered by the sand, and the isolated flower- 
clusters in B. Goodii appear as isolated plants scattered over a diameter of 
three or four metres which represents the extent of the branching system. 
The inclusion of E^'emophila amongst the chamaephytes once more illustrates 
the remarkable diversity exhibited by the plants of this genus both epharmoni- 
cally and floristically. No other genus in \Ahstern Australia is more worthy 
of study from almost every point of view within the study both of ecology 
and systematic botany. 
2. LIANES. 
Using the term in its widest sense, the lianes occur in almost all forma- 
tions in Western Australia, but their number is not large. As one would expect, 
they are most common in the forest and littoral thicket areas, where Clematis, 
Keyinedya, and Hardenbergia offer the best examples, and almost complete 
the total list. On the western plain we encounter in the richer soils three 
jjlants which are remarkable because of their restricted occurrence : Aphano- 
petalum, from the Chapman River, Clematocissus which extends from the 
Murchison River to the Hill River, and becomes leafless during the dry season, 
and finally Dioscorea. Their occurrence here suggests that they are migrants 
from the north, but their absence to the lun'th of the Murchison River is re- 
markable. In the Northern Province the lianes are mainly recruited from the 
Asclepiadaceae, Apocyriaceae , Papilionaceae, and Convolvulaceae. Marsdenia 
australis extends as far south as the southern confines of the mulga-bush 
formation, while Glycine extends much further south, associated with the 
granite rocks. The other important lianes are to be found amongst the 
Pittosporaceae, Billardiera, Marianihus, and Bollya, having an extensive 
distribution through the South-West Province ; Marianthus erubescens and 
Billardiera alone extending to the boundaries of the Eremea. Coinesperma, 
with two twining species, almost completes the list of southern forms which 
extend into the interior, although Kennedya jyrorepens is the solo Eremean 
form which extends as a psammophyte into the desert. Cassytha has a general 
distribution throughout Western Australia, but is more abundant in coastal 
than in inland situations. It is almost absent from tlie far interior, but 
common in the littoral thickets and the swamps. 
