Page:Miscellaneousbot01brow.djvu/329

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BOTANY OF SWAN RIVER.
311

from Swan River. I may observe, however, that the number is considerable, and that their specific characters have been recently published.[1]

The Myrtaceæ of Swan River belong chiefly to Melaleuca, Beaufortia, Calothamnus, Calythrix, Billotia,[2] and Eucalyptus.

Of Eucalyptus the only species in the collection had been first found in Captain Flinders's voyage at King George's Sound, on the shores of which it was the only useful [20 timber tree, though there of very moderate size. I have named it Eucalyptus calophylla.

Mr. Fraser describes it as forming, on the banks of the Swan, a large forest tree, and erroneously refers it to Angophora, a genus which is limited to the east coast of New Holland. Other species of Eucalyptus, forming the timber of the country, are mentioned in the report, and considered to be some of the common gum-trees of Port Jackson, from which, however, I have no doubt they will prove to be distinct; for I am acquainted with no species of this genus common even to the east and south coasts of New Holland.

I shall conclude with a remark relating equally to the genus Eucalyptus and to the Leafless Acaciæ, several species of which are found in the collection. This observation I have formerly made in the Appendix to Captain Flinders's Voyage in the following terms[3]:—"These two genera are not only the most widely diffused, but by far the most extensive in Terra Australis, about 100 of each having already been observed; and if taken together, and considered with respect to the mass of vegetable matter they contain, calculated from the size as well as the number of individuals, are perhaps nearly equal to all the other plants of that country. They agree very generally also, though belonging to very different families, in a part of their economy, which contributes somewhat to the peculiar

  1. Suppl. I, Prodr. Flor. Nov. Holl.
  2. A genus distinct from Leptospermum, to which the few species hitherto published, namely, B. marginata, flexuosa, and linearifolia, have been referred.
  3. (Antè, p. 62.)