Page:Appendix to the first twenty-three volumes of Edwards's Botanical Register.djvu/14

 iv, Indian wheat, &c. intermixed with fine pasture land. The sandy soil is covered with coarse herbage, on which cattle thrive remarkably well; on the good soil, about sixteen kinds of grasses are met with, amongst which anthistiria australis, the kangaroo grass, is conspicuous. The gardens furnish most kinds of edible vegetables in great abundance; some of which may be obtained in all seasons. Amongst these are cabbages, endive, beet, parsley, cresses, leaks, onions, radishes, carrots, knol-kohl, parsnips, turnips, artichokes, vegetable marrow, and cauliflower; also cucumbers, pumpkins, water cresses, tomatos, capsicums; with musk melon, rock melon, and water melon in great plenty and perfection. The fruits now thriving are the grape, fig, peach, almond, apple, pear, strawberry, sloe, plum (several varieties), olive, the common and white mulberry, pine apple, plantain, sugar cane, Cape gooseberry; besides which several ripen, which, in colder countries, never come to perfection: such as lemons, citrons, and oranges. From all which data we may conclude that the climate of Swan River is like that of the South of Italy; and that while any of the native plants may be expected to thrive in the open air in England during the summer, none are likely to bear our winters except the mountain plants, and those only in the South of England.

The more conspicuous plants which greatly contribute to give a character to the landscape are, according to Brown, Kingia australis, a species of Xanthorhœa, a Zamia nearly allied to and perhaps not distinct from Z. spiralis of the East coast, although it is said frequently to attain the height of thirty feet; a species of Callitris; one or two of Casuarina; an Exocarpus, probably not different from E. cupressiformus; and Nuytsia floribunda. The latter (Tab IV.), which bears a profusion of yellow flowers, and is said to attain the stature of a small Orange tree, is a most curious instance of a plant, belonging to the parasitical order Loranthaceæ, growing in the ground. The Xanthorhœa above mentioned, is described by Frazer as being associated with gigantic specimens of a Banksia he calls grandis, and, with Zamia spiralis, thirty feet high, which it rivals in dimensions, forming groups that impart to some places a character perfectly tropical. The natural orders which most abound in the Colony are chiefly composed of species peculiar to this part of