Page:Miscellaneousbot01brow.djvu/325



OF THE

R. BROWN,, F.R.S.

Read November 22nd, 1830.

vegetation of the banks of Swan River, and of [ 17 the adjoining country to the southward, is at present known chiefly from the report of Mr. Charles Fraser, the botanical collector, who accompanied Captain Stirling in his examination of that district in 1827, and from collections of specimens which were then formed.

I have inspected, and in part examined, two of these collections; one of which I received from Mr. Fraser himself, through my friend Alexander Macleay, Esq. the Secretary of the Colony of New South Wales; for the second I am indebted to Captain Mangles.

The number of species in both collections does not exceed one hundred and forty; and some dicotyledonous herbaceous tribes, as well as grasses Cyperaceæ and Orchideæ, are entirely wanting.

From materials so limited in extent, but few general observations can be hazarded on the vegetation of this portion of the south-west coast of New Holland.

The principal families of plants contained in the collections are Proteaceæ; Myrtaceæ; Leguminosæ, such especially as belong to Decandrous Papilionaceæ, and to the