xL 
Charlkr Austin Gardner. 
by species of Sorghuin, one of which (S, intrans) attains a height of six or 
eiglit feet. There are also a multitude of dicotyledonous herbs, including 
Ptilotus and Trichmum, Spermacoce, many species of the Scrophulariaceae, 
Leguminosae, and plants belong to the Centrospermae. 
The swampy areas are mainly covered by Cyperaceae belonging to many 
genera, wdth Mitrasacme , Byhlis, and Utricularia, w'here the soil is perennially 
moist. 
Whereas the basaltic savannah woodland maintains its distinctive physi- 
ognomy throughout, tlie sandstone savannah woodland, on account of the 
deeply eroded nature of the country^ is remarkably diversified. No large 
uniform areas are to be seen. Either the plateau is flat, or it is seamed with 
wild deep canyons, and wide eroded flats. The swampy land referred to occurs 
usually in depressions in the plateau itself, or in the broad valleys flanked by 
■steep clifls. The canyons and gorges carry a profusion of lithophilous shrubs 
or trees, such as Ficus, Erioglossum, Dodonaea, Boronia, Calythrix, and the giant 
Verticordia, Ervatamia, Solarium, and a number of species in which the tem- 
perate Australian groups are mixed with the tropical. The liigh plateau, on 
the other hand, supports plants w’hich are more typical of the dry steppe 
zone~Triodia, Grevillea, Callitris, Dampiera, Cassia Eucalyptus papuana, 
-and E. setosa, and Acacia species of the Phyllodineae, notably A. tumida, 
A. Luehmanni, and A. sericata. 
This contrast is remarkable, and exhibits the fact that the Indo-Malayan 
Element in the flora finds its highest expression in the low-lying moist soils, 
while the more arid situations are almost entirely populated by xerophytic 
Australian species which are alone able to thrive in this unfavourable environ- 
ment, for it must be remembered that although the Hann Plateau of Kim- 
berley receives a rich rainfall in its wet season, the six cool months experience 
a drought period scarcely equalled, even in the Eremea, and that the meso- 
phytic and hydrophytic elements of the flora, including these Indo-Malayan 
species that are not deciduous, are restricted to soils in which telluric water 
supplies their moisture requirements. 
The King Leopold Range marks the southern boundary of the savannah 
woodland, and we enter into a region of lower rainfall. The principal formation 
is savannah carrying isolated or scattered trees, mostly Eucalyptus and Acacia, 
■and a dense ground-covering of grass and herbs. Where the soil is rich in qual- 
ity, or subjected to periodic inundation we find a richer flora, in which a number 
of tropical African grasses grow in abundance mixed with genera which are 
either gerontogeous, or with a few strictly Australian t^’pes, together with sev- 
eral Indo-Malayan or paleotropic herbaceous species, especially legumes. Here 
we also find bipinnate Acacias, especially A. Farnesiana and A. Bidwilli, and 
the outposts of the Indo-Malayan arboreal Element — plants such as Bauhinia, 
Pithecolohiimi, Dichrostachys, and a few others of less importance. The savan- 
nah is only well represented on the plains, especially in alluvial soils. Where 
the soils become more sandy, or of a gravelly nature, the physiognomy changes, 
and we enter into the Pindan country near the Fitzroy River. The Pindan 
country is perhaps the tropical equivalent of the Mulga bush of the Eremea, 
but its woody plants, mostly Acacia, are more densely crowded, and the Euca- 
lyptus trees become more depauperate. E. setosa and other Corymbosae are 
the dominant species. Associated with the shrubs and dwarf trees are tall 
coarse grasses and succulent lierbage, such as Portidaca, Trianthema, and Sesuv- 
ium. In its more impoverished form it leads to the steppe and ultimately 
to the desert some distance to the south of the Fitzroy River. 
