25 PAPERS READ. NOTES ON SOME SPECIMENS OF PLANTS COLLECTED AT KINO GEORGE'S SOUND BY Mr. H. WILLIS. By The Rev. W. Woolls. Ph.D., F.L.S. Some time since I forwarded to the Linnean Society, with Notes, 38 specimens of plants collected at King George's Sound by the Rev. R. Collie, F.L.S., and in so doing I endeavoured to explain, by the assistance of my late friend Mr. C. S. Wilkinson, F.G.S., the probable reason why the flora of Western Australia ditFers so much from that of the eastern portion of the continent. That eminent geologist was of opinion that, during the Miocene period, the condition of Australia was very different from what it now is, as probably the ocean occupied all that low country between Spencer's Gulf and Western Australia ; whilst during the Cretacean period about two-thirds of Australia must have been under the ocean. Supposing, therefore, that Eastern and Western Australia at some very remote period were separated by water, and that, in the course of many generations, the conditions of soil and climate have been considerably modified in both regions, it may be presumed that the western or purely Australian plants became very much localised, whilst the eastern flora, in addition to the few species which have immigrated to it from the west, has been mixed with plants of an Asiatic or Polynesian type. An examination of 35 species, which have recently been collected at King George's Sound, will show how few have travelled eastwards : — (1) DlLLENIACE^. 1. Rihbertia fxirjuracea, Benth. (2) POLYGALE^. 2. Comesperma confertimi, Labill.
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