COLLECTED BY CAPTAIN STURT. 339
failed to form extensive collections of plants of the regions lie visited; and lastly, from Captain Sturt's present col- lection.
The whole number of plants collected in these various expeditions may be estimated at about 700 or 750 species; and the general character of the vegetation, especially of the extensive sterile regions, very nearly resembles that of the heads of the two great inlets of the south coast, par- ticularly that of Spencer's Gulf; the same or a still greater diminution of the characteristic tribes of the general Aus- tralian Flora being observable. Of these characteristic tribes, hardly any considerable proportion is found, except of Eucalyptus, and even that genus seems to be much reduced in the number of species ; of the leafless Acaciae, which appear to exist in nearly their usual proportion ; and of Calhtris and Casuarina. The extensive families of Epa- cridese, Stylidea?, Restiacese, and the tribe of Decandrous [92 Papilionacese, hardly exist, and the still more characteristic and extensive family of Proteaceae is reduced to a few species of Grevillea, Hakea, and Persoonia.
Nor are there any extensive families peculiar to these regions ; the only characteristic tribes being that small section of aphyllous, or nearly apliyllous Cassiae, which I have particularly adverted to in my account of some of the species belonging to Captain Sturt's collection ; and several genera of Myoporinae, particularly Eremophila and Stenochilus. Both these tribes appear to be confined to the interior, or to the two great gulfs of the South coast, which may be termed the outlets or direct continuation of the southern interior; several of the species observed at the head of Spencer's Gulf also existing in nearly the same meridian, several degrees to the northward. It is not a little remarkable that nearly the same general character of vegetation appears to exist in the sterile islands of Dam- pier's Archipelago, on the North-west coast, where even some of the species which probably exist through the whole of the southern interior are found ; of these the most striking instances are, Clianthus Dampieri, and Jasminum lineare, and to establish this extensive range of these two
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