52 
E. S. Saunders. 
stem and flower-base shows the most brilliant red, sharply marked 
off from the upper green flower-tube which is laterally split, and 
with its perianth teeth and its projecting anthers gives the suggestion 
of toes and claws which has presumably earned for the plant its 
colloquial name. Many members of the families, Proteaceae, 
Myrtaceae and Epacridaceae which furnish so large a proportion of 
the shrubby vegetation of this region were already showing flower, 
e.g., of the Proteaceae the purely Western genera Adenantlios 
(A . barbigera), Dryandra ( D . nivea), Stirlingia (Simsin) and Synaphea; 
Lambertia multiflora, also a Western type ; species of Conospermum 
(Smoke Bush), their grey-white inflorescences covered with a thick 
cottony tomentum, and also the more widely distributed forms 
Isopogon (/. roseus), Grevillea ( G . bipinnatifida, G. oxystigma, G. 
Wilsoni), Banksia and Hakea, The species H. trifurcata was 
frequently found with a broad normal leaf here and there among 
the rest of the needle-like foliage. 1 The persistent hard woody 
shell-like fruits of the last-named genus were a characteristic feature 
almost everywhere, as were also the large woody fruit cones of the 
previous season on the Banksias. Where an area is seen covered 
with Banksias in flower the handsome symmetrical inflorescences 
produce a most decorative effect. Of the Myrtaceae may be mentioned 
Melaleuca (a Paper Bark or Tea-tree), Leptospermum (another Tea- 
tree), Agonis flexuosa (the Peppermint), Calothamnus a beautiful 
West Australian genus of the “bottle-brush” type and the pretty 
shrub Hypocalymma robustum; mention must also be made of the 
very pretty pink-flowered shrub Chamcelaucium uncinatum , the 
Geraldton Wax-flower, specimens of which were very kindly obtained 
for us by residents in Perth from friends living further north. Of 
Epacrids the West Australian forms Andersonia (A. latijlora) and 
Lysinema (locally known as curry and rice). Of Liliaceae the 
shrubby Calectasia cyanea an Australian type with a pretty blue 
everlasting flower. Two other types, often associated and domin¬ 
ating certain areas, strike even the casual observer. (1) The so- 
called Grass-trees or Black-boys belonging to the Liliaceous genera 
Xanthorrhea and Kingia, both with a stout, black caudex attaining 
sometimes a height of 15 feet and often branching at the top into 
several short trunks, each surmounted by a dense crown of long 
narrow leaves, erect and spreading when young, becoming reflexed 
and matted around the trunk as they get old. In Xanthorrhea 
' See R. Brown, Trans. Linn. Soc., X (1810), p. 183. This peculiarity is 
also mentioned by Bentham in his “ Flora Australiensis,’’ Vol. V (18701, p. 504, 
