Apr., 1923] CAMPBELL — AUSTRALASIAN BOTANICAL NOTES l8l 
Mingled with coarse grasses and sedges was a bewildering variety of low 
flowering shrubs and bushes. Many of these genera had also eastern species 
— e.g., Boronia, Dampiera, Hibbertia, Patersonia, Tetratheca, and others; 
but many belonged to genera mainly developed in Western Australia and 
quite different from any seen before. The genus Candollea (Stylidium), 
while occurring in Eastern Australia, is particularly developed in Western 
Australia, where it includes a great many species, some dainty little plants 
a few inches high, with delicate pink and white flowers, forming dense 
patches; others taller and more robust, solitary or few together. The column 
formed of the stamens and pistil is bent backward and when touched springs 
out with a jerk, but gradually returns to its original position. They are 
popularly known as “trigger plants.” 
The genus Drosera is extraordinarily developed in Western Australia. 
Some of these species form tiny rosettes, close to the ground, while others 
have slender half-climbing stems four or five feet long, with flowers almost 
an inch in diameter. 
Small everlastings (Helichrysum?) made solid patches of white in the 
sandy soil, and another very conspicuous plant was Ricinocarpus sp., one 
of the Euphorbiaceae—covered with masses of snow-white tubular flowers. 
The pretty blue and lavender Patersonias were common, the sole repre¬ 
sentatives of the Iris family; but the Liliaceae were abundant, comprising 
some very pretty species of Dianella, Thysonotis, and Burchardia. The 
genus Thysonotis, of which there are a number of species in West Australia, 
has beautiful fringed petals, usually blue or purple in color. Burchardia 
has umbels of white flowers, not unlike some species of Allium, or the Cali¬ 
fornian Brodiaea. 
A conspicuous and abundant plant was Anigozanthos Manglesii or 
“Kangaroo paws,” a most extraordinary and bizarre flower. The scapes, 
two or three feet high, have closely set, two-ranked flowers. The tubular 
flowers are split open and flattened, so that the flower presents a. fancied 
resemblance to the paw of an animal, the six short perianth segments repre¬ 
senting the toes. As the outer surface of the perianth has a velvety surface, 
the comparison is still more striking; but the color is perhaps the most 
remarkable feature of this species, the perianth tube being of an intense 
verdigris green, while the inferior ovary is blood-red. 
Ground orchids are very common and comprise some very beautiful 
species. As elsewhere in Australia, the genus Caladenia is the commonest. 
A fine yellow species (C. Falda) was particularly abundant, and when grow¬ 
ing in quantity suggested beds of yellow Erythronium. Another species, 
C. Patersonii, is known locally as “spider orchid,” as the sepals are drawn 
out into long, slender filaments. A third species, C. gemmata, was a deep 
blue, and extremely handsome. Other genera, Thelymitra, Glossodia, 
and Diuris, were represented by several species. Some of the Thelymitras, 
with racemes of fine azure-blue flowers, are among the handsomest of the 
orchids. 
