Leafless Acaciæ; Epacrideæ; Goodenoviæ; and Compositæ. And the more conspicuous plants, not belonging to any of these families, and which greatly contribute to give a character to the landscape, are, Kingia Australis, a species of Xanthorrhæa; a Zamia, nearly allied to, and perhaps not distinct from, Z. spiralis of the east coast, although it is frequently to attain the height of thirty feet; a species of Callitris; one or two of Casuarina; an Exocarpus, probably not different from E. cupressiformis; and Nuytsia floribunda[1], a plant hitherto referred to Loranthus, but sufficiently distinct in the texture and form of its fruit, and now named in memory of the discoverer of that part of the coast to which this very singular tree is nearly limited.
If an opinion were to be formed of the nature of the country merely from the inspection of these collections, it certainly would be extremely unfavourable as to the quality of the soil; for not only do the prevailing families already enumerated, but the whole of the genera of those families, and even many of the species, agree with those found on the shores of King George's Sound, which, with the exception of a few patches of very small extent, seem absolutely incapable of cultivation.
The opinion so formed, however, would be necessarily modified in noticing the entire want in the collection of 18] tribes, all of which must be supposed to exist, and some even in considerable proportion, in the tract examined; in allowing for the unfavourable season when the herbarium was collected; in admitting the statements in Mr. Fraser's report, respecting the abundance and luxuriance of Anthistiria australis—the Kangaroo-grass of New South Wales; from the account given in the same report of the extraordinary size of some arborescent species of Banksia, which, in the neighbourhood of King George's Sound, generally form small trees only; and lastly, in adverting to the important fact stated by Captain Stirling in his despatch to Government—namely, that the stock had not only been
