characters, unless the surface of the labellum is taken advan- 
tage of ; and for such a measure Botanists are hardly yet 
prepared. Instead, therefore, of speculating upon what mav 
possibly he done hereafter with the genus, we take advantage 
of the present opportunity to print a sketch of the geogra- 
phical distribution of New Holland Orchidaceee by the late 
Allan Cunningham, the well known and lamented New 
Holland Botanist. 
Notes , for the most part geographical , on the Orchidaceous 
plants of Australia . By the late Allan Cunningham. 
In viewing the limited number of Orchidaceous plants 
hitherto observed by Botanists in Australia, and their geo- 
graphic range on that extraordinary continent, as far as its 
coasts and internal country are known, I have, in order to 
account in some measure for the fact of a country, possessing 
so considerable an extent of intertropical coasts, which as far 
as temperature goes, may be said to be favourable to the pro- 
duction of the order, furnishing nevertheless so few of its 
epiphytic division, been led to consider the general configura- 
tion of the surface of the country ; the open character gene- 
rally of its forests ; the attenuated ramification of its preva- 
lent timbers ; and the geological structure of the several 
coasts and regions in their vicinity — considerations equally 
referable to Filices and other portions of its cryptogamic vege- 
tation — the same physical causes, that limit the existence of 
the one, especially of its Epiphytes, maintaining doubtless 
alike influence in regard to the extent and diffusion of species 
of the other. 
It has been ascertained by Navigators and ini and- travel- 
lers that the highlands of that continent are situated upon or 
near its shores, and that the most elevated country is upon 
the eastern coast. There they present a range of mountains 
which extends in the direction of the meridian, and stretch- 
ing from Wilson’s Promontory on the south (lat. 39°) to about 
Cape Weymouth of Cook on the north (lat. 12|°), exhibit a 
continuous chain, which has been happily termed, the spine or 
backbone of the continent. This main range, in some lati- 
tudes, closely invests the coast-line, whilst in other parallels 
it retires to some distance from the shore, and there gives 
