Australian Meeting of the British Association. 145 
changes in shape and dehiscence of anthers and reduction in size of 
fruit and flower. An interesting metabolic series is also found from 
pinene as chief constituent of the essential oil of the more ancient 
forms to the phellandrine of the more modern. 
4. “ Variation and Adaptation in the Eucalypts,” by Dr. 
Cuthbert Hall. The author describes certain variations and 
adaptations in the cotyledons of Eucalypts, and while subscribing to 
the general view that variations and adaptations are very active in 
the genus, considers that certain of them are more accurately to be 
described as deviations or fluctuation variations in the sense of 
de Vries. 
Two papers of special local interest were, one by Mr. Fred. 
Turner on a Botanical Survey of North-East New South Wales, 
and the other on Types of Vegetation on the Coast in the Neigh¬ 
bourhood of Adelaide, by Professor T. G. B. Osborn. 
The north-eastern portion of New South Wales is of especial 
interest in that it shows a dense luxuriant semi-tropical vegetation 
composed of Tree Ferns, Palms, giant Sterculias and figs, covered 
with epiphytic orchids and ferns and laced together with brilliant- 
flowered climbers. Many of the trees furnish useful economic 
products such as strychnine, brucine and strychnicene of the remark¬ 
able Strychnos psilosperma and the medicinal products of Duboisia 
myoporoides. The survey has added 69 new species and 12 new 
genera to the flora of New South Wales. 
Professor Osborn’s area includes dunes of various degrees of 
stability as well as salt swamps and marshes, with mangroves along 
the tidal estuaries. The latter consist entirely of the Leguminous 
Avicennia officinalis, mixed with Snccda niaritima on the shore ward 
margin. The periodically inundated areas are covered with 
Salicornia australis and Salicoruia arbuscula , while above the tide 
limit appear also Melaleuca pustulata, Frankenia Icevis, and 
Mesembryanthemum australe. 
The characteristic binding plant of the sand dunes is Spinifex 
hirsutus, while the first colonisers are probably Salsola Kali, Cakile 
niaritima, etc. Associated with Spinifex are Olearia axillaris, 
Sccevola crassifolia, etc., while on the more fixed dunes occur 
Mesembryanthemum aquilaterale, Leucopogon Richei, Acacia salicina, 
Muehlenbeckia adpressa and Clematis microphylla. There is distinct 
evidence of former more abundant woodland on the dunes more 
remote from the sea where Callitris propinqua, Eucalyptus odorata 
and Casuarina quadurivalvis still appear. 
