Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/125

Rh has not yet been deprived of its saline properties. In the districts farthest removed from the action of fresh water, hundreds of miles are covered with such plants as will grow on the sea-shore, e.g., the mesembryanthemum called pig s face or Hottentot fig. Other species belonging to the coast ward uplands seem to have been conveyed into the interior by the action of water, as the belts of timber, and of pine or cypress scrub, are always found to extend along the line of direction taken by floods. They grow on sandy ridges, alongside of hollows, or depressed channels. On the north coast, so much of which is flat, and often swampy or sandy, the mangrove flourishes as in other tropical regions. From the extreme aridity of the climate in most parts of northern Australia, there is a singular absence of mosses and lichens. North-west Australia possesses, in the Adan- sonia Gregorii, or gouty-stem tree, a counterpart of the West African baobab, or monkey-bread tree. It is worthy of remark that, with a few exceptions, the Australian trees are evergreens. They also show a peculiar reverted position of their leaves, which hang vertically, turning their edges instead of their sides towards the sun; and the eucalypti have the peculiarity of shedding their bark annually instead of their leaves. In Australia the native species of lily, tulip, and honeysuckle appear as standard trees of considerable size. The native grasses do not form a continuous and even greensward, as in Europe, but grow in detached clumps or tufts. None of the cereal plants are indigenous, and very few of the fruits or roots that supply human food; but many Australian plants are likely to be valuable for medicinal or chemical manufactures. This continent, as might be expected, has some of the same botanical families that occupy South Africa, Polynesia, and South America. Its relations in that respect to Europe are shown by Alphonse de Candolle s tabular statements in the Geographic Botanique Raisonnée. He gives the exact number of species common to Australia and to France in each of the principal families or natural orders. It appears that of 3614 species of phanerogamic plants in France, only 45 belong to Australia. But it will be sufficient, without citing the numerical details, to quote Baron von Muller s list of the natural orders having the most numerous species of indigenous growth in South Australia. They are here arranged in succession, according to their comparative amounts of specific diver sity, those which have the greatest number of species being mentioned first. Of the phanerogamic series, the legumin ous and the composite families united form nearly one- fourth. Indeed, the half of the dicotyledonous plants, or exogens, that exist in the sub-tropical districts belong to these two orders. Next come the myrtaceous plants, the ferns, and the grasses ; the Proteacese, which form a conspicuous feature of Australian botany; the Orchidacese, the epacrid family, and the parsley family, or Umbelliferse; the Diosmeee, a sub-order of the Rutacese or rue family; the Liliacese, the Labiatae or mint family, the Goodenice, the Scrophulariacese or figworts, and the Salsolaceag. The Ranuncuiacese, the geranium family, the rosaceous plants, and the epacrid group, are not found in Australia north of the tropical line.

Animals.&mdash;The zoology of Australia and Tasmania pre sents a very conspicuous point of difference from that of other regions of the globe, in the prevalence of non-placental mammalia. The vast majority of the mammalia are pro vided with an organ in the uterus, by which, before the birth of their young, a vascular connection is maintained between the embryo and the parent animal. There are two orders, the Marsupialia and the Monotrernata, which do not possess this organ. Both these are found in Australia, to which region indeed they are not absolutely confined ; but the marsupials alone constitute two-thirds of all the Australian species of mammals. It is the well-known peculiarity of this order that the female has a pouch or fold of skin upon her abdomen, in which she can place the young for suckling within reach of her teats. The opossum of America is the only species out of Australasia which is thus provided. Australia is inhabited by at least 110 different species of marsupials, which have been arranged in five tribes, according to the food they eat, viz., the root- eaters (wombats), the fruit-eaters (phalangers), the grass- eaters (kangaroos), the insect-eaters (bandicoots), and the flesh-eaters (native cats and rats). Of these tribes the wombats are closely allied to the phalangers, represented by the opossums and flying squirrels, with the native bear, while fossil remains of twenty extinct species have also been found. Of wombats now existing there are four species, all of nearly the same size, seldom exceeding 100 tt&amp;gt; in weight. They all burrow in the ground, and their habitat is in New South Wales, Tasmania, and South Australia. There is but one species of the singular animal miscalled the native bear, which is more like a sloth in its habits. Three varieties of brush-tailed opossum are found, but one of them exists only in Tasmania ; and there are three ring- tailed varieties in almost every part of Australia. The great flying phalanger (Petaurista) is nearly allied to the last-mentioned genus ; it exists only in East Australia ; as does the small flying phalanger (Belideus), which is re stricted to mountain districts. The interior of Australia and the west coast are wanting in these species, but two or three of them occur on the north coast. The smallest phalanger (Acrobata jiygmcea) is less than a mouse, and has a feathery tail. The little Tarsipes rostratus is almost toothless, but has a long hairy tongue, which it thrusts into flowers to suck their sweetness. The kangaroo (Macropus) and most of its congeners show an extraordinary disproportion of the hind limbs to the fore part of the body. The rock wallabies again have short tarsi of the hind legs, with a long pliable tail for climbing, like that of the tree kangaroo of New Guinea, or that of the jerboa. Of the larger kangaroos, which attain a weight of 200 S&amp;gt; and more, eight species are named, only one of which is found in West Australia. There are some twenty smaller species in Australia and Tasmania, besides the rock wallabies and the hare kangaroos ; these last are wonderfully swift, making clear jumps eight or ten feet high. To this agility they owe their preservation from the prairie fires, which are so destructive in the interior during seasons of drought. In the rat kangaroo there is not the same disproportion of the limbs ; it approaches more nearly to the bandicoot, of which seven species exist, from the size of a rat to that of a rabbit. The carnivorous tribe of marsupials, the larger species at any rate, belong more to Tasmania, which has its &quot;tiger&quot; and its &quot;devil.&quot; But the native cat, or dasyurus, is common to every part of Australia. Several different species of pouched rats and mice, one or two living in trees, are reckoned among the flesh-eaters. Fossil bones of extinct kangaroo species are met with, which must have been of enormous size, twice or thrice that of any species now living. We pass on to the other curious order of non-placental mammals, that of the Monotremata, so called from the structure of their organs of evacuation with a single orifice, as in birds. Their abdominal bones are like those of the marsupials ; and they are furnished with pouches for their young, but have no teats, the milk being distilled into their pouches from the mammary glands. Australia and Tasmania possess two animals of this order, the echidna, or spiny ant-eater (hairy in Tasmania), and the Platypus anatinus, the duck-billed water-mole, otherwise named the Ornithorhynclius paradoxiis. This odd animal is provided

