4 
represented. On the other hand it is strikingly singular to notice the vast decrease in 
Proteaceae, in the sophoraceous tribe of Papilionaceae, in Myrtacese and Diosmese, all largely 
developed in most other parts of Australia beyond the tropical zone. Epacridese are 
perfectly wanting. 
A leafless species of Euphorbia, seen near the Flinders Ranges, but in too imperfect 
a state to be described, introduces a new feature into the Australian vegetation. Of 
the Purslane, which cannot be overated by travellers in its value as an antiscorbutic 
vegetable, and which was seen during Mr. Babbage’s expedition for the first time within 
the boundaries of South Australia, it is worthy to record, that this plant, regarded 
generally as cosmopolitan, is evidently only by degrees spreading over this continent. 
Before the last few years it was never seen near Port Phillip, but it is extending now 
■with rapidity around it, likewise invading Gipps Land from the Sno^vy River. 
The Porcupine Grass (Triodia pungens) was last noticed at the southern side of 
of Lake Gairdner and is according to Mr. Gregory, excluded from any part of Western 
Australia except a few patches of the interior, whilst in North Australia it is replaced 
by different species. 
The Quandang with bitter fruit (Santalum persicarium) is seemingly identical 
with the Sandaltree, which furnishes to the Western Australian colonists in its ■wood an 
article of export, and it deserves with the increasing facility for inland transit our attention, 
the tree or shrub being of universal occurrence in the deserts of Victoria and South 
Australia. Perliaps the most interesting and certainly the most ornamental portion of the 
vegetation in the territory lately explored is constituted by the numerous and gorgeous 
species of Eremophila. The additions to this genus now obtained induced me to re^view 
once more all the species with wliich I am acquainted, and to offer an arrangement some- 
what different to that suggested some time since in the papers of the Royal Society of 
Tasmania. 
The appended notes from the pen of Mr. Babbage, will briefly demonstrate the 
respective geological characters of the localities on which the en^umerated plants were 
collected. The herbarium itself was compiled by Mr. David Hergolt, and does credit to his 
skill and industry. 
The vegetation so far revealed to us, furnishes hardly any data for conjecture as to 
the probable nature of the country beyond the steppe explored last year. But if we are 
entitled to hazard an opinion, we might from analogy anticipate that not the dense scrub, 
which form such an impediment to travelling to Western Australia are likely to be 
encountered in a further advance from South Australia towards the N.W. coast, since 
peculiar lines of demarkation in a direction nearly from S.E. to N.W. are perceptible in 
the vegetation of Western Austraha f but that rather a gradual transit from the Flora of 
the southern desert to that of Arnhems Land may be expected. 
See Mr. Gregory’s diagram in transactions Victoria PhUosophical Institute n, 152 , 
