L'IBRARY'OF THE GRAY HERBARIUM HARVARD UNIVERSITY. BOUGHT. THE FLORA OF AUSTRALIA, ITS ORIGIN, AFFINITIES, AND DISTRIBUTION; BEING AN TO THE FLORA OF TASMANIA. BY JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER, M.D., F.R.S., L.S., & G.S.; LATE BOTANIST TO THE ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. LONDON : LOVELL REEVE, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. r^/f'ORElGN&ENGLISH' <^ . 1859. i^\BOOKSELLERS^.- PR 2G 1.912 Gray Herbarium Harvard University ON THE FLORA OF AUSTRALIA ITS ORIGIN, AFFINITIES, AND DISTRIBUTION. I I / ON THE FLORA OF AUSTRALIA, ITS ORIGIN, AFFINITIES, AND DISTRIBUTION; BEIKG AN TO THE FLORA OF TASMANIA. BY JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER, M.D., F.R.S., L.S., & G.S.; LATE BOTANIST TO THE ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. Reprinted from the JJotany of the Antarctic Expedition, Part III., Flora of Tasmania, Vol. I. LONDON : LOVELL REEVE, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1859. PRINTED BY JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. CONTENTS OF THE INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. § i. Preliminary Remarks. PAGE Sources of Information, published and unpublished, materials, collections, etc i Object of arranging them to discuss the Origin, Peculiarities, and Distribution of the Vegetation of Australia, and to regard them in relation to the views of Darwin and others, on the Creation of Species .... iii^ § 2. On the General Phenomena of Variation in the Vegetable Kingdom. All plants more or less variable ; rate, extent, and nature of variability ; differences of amount and degree in different natural groups of plants v Parallelism of features of variability in different groups of individuals (varieties, species, genera, etc.), and in wild and cultivated plants vii Variation a centrifugal force ; the tendency in the progeny of varieties being to depart further from their original types, not to revert to them viii Effects of cross-impregnation and hybridization ultimately favourable to permanence of specific character x Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection ; — its effects on variable organisms under varying conditions is to give a temporary stability to races, species, genera, etc xi § 3. On the General Phenomena of Distribution in Area. Circumscription of Area of Species, and causes of it xii Relative Distribution of Natural Groups of Plants xiii Insular Floras, and analogies between them and mountain Floras, and between the geological ages of insular and other Floras xv Existing conditions will not account for existing distribution xvi Effects of Humidity in modifying distribution : — effects of the Glacial Epoch, and Darwin's views thereon . xvii § 4. On the General Phenomena of the Distribution of Plants in Time. Outlines of the principal facts in Fossil Botany xxi Their bearing on the question of Progressive Development amongst known Plants xxii Progression and Retrogression of Vegetable Types xxiv vi CONTENTS OF THE INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. PAGE The Doctrine of Genetic Resemblance xxv Concludiug Remarks on the speculative aspect of the whole subject ON THE FLORA OF AUSTRALIA. * !- General Remarks. Peculiarities of the Flora "vii False impressions of the amount and value of these peculiarities, and general agreement of Flora with others xxviii § 2. Estimate of the Australian Flora, and general remarks on the Classes and Orders, their number, distribution, and affinities xxx § 3. On the Australian Distribution of Natural Orders xxxiii §4. On the Genera of the Australian Flora xxxvi § 5. On the Tropical Australian Flora xxxviii Comparison with the Indian, African, etc., Floras xli List of Indian Plants in Australia " xlii § 6. On the Flora of Extratropical Australia 1 Comparison and Contrasts of South-eastern and South-western Floras lii On the Flora of the countries round Spencer's Gulf U 5 8. On the Tasmanian Flora lvi Table of Distribution of Tasmanian Plants lvii § 9- On the New Zealand and Polynesian features of Australian Vegetation lxxxvi § 10. On 'the Antarctic Plants of Australia lxxxix CONTENTS OF THE INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. vii § 11. PAGE On the South African features of the Australian Vegetation xcii § 12. On the European features of the Australian Flora. List of European Genera and Species in Australia . xciv § 13. On the Fossil Flora of Australia and its Geology in relation to the existing Flora c § 14. On the Naturalized Plants of Australia civ § 15. A List of some of the Esculent Plants of Tasmania : . cx § 16. Outlines of the Progress of Botanical Discovery in Australia. 1. Voyages of Discovery and Survey cxm English. — Dampier, Cook (Banks and Solander), Vancouver, establishment of Port Essington (Arm strong), Flinders (Brown), King (Allan Cunningham), Wickham (Bynoe), Blackwood (M'Gillivray), Ross (Antarctic Expedition), Stanley (M'Gillivray, Kennedy, Carron), Denham (M'Gillivray and Milne). French. — D'Entrecasteaux (Labillardiere), Baudin (Leschenault), Freycinet (Gaudichaud), Duperrey (D'Urville and Lesson), D'Urville (Lesson), D'Urville (Hombron and Jacquinot). American. — Wilkes. 2. Land Expeditions undertaken by order of the'Home and Colonial Governments cxix Oxley (Allan Cunningham and Fraser), Sturt, Mitchell (R. Cunuingham), Grey, Leichardt, Eyre, Roe, Mueller, Gregory, North Australian Expedition (Mueller), Babbage. 3. Colonial Botanists and Gardens exxiii Fraser, R. Cunningham, M'Lean, A. Cunningham, Anderson, Moore, Mueller, Hill, Francis. 4. Private Travellers and Collectors sent out by Horticultural Establishments or private individuals . exxiv White, Caley, Paterson, Burton, Lawrence, Baxter, Sieber, Collie, Gunn, Hiigel, Preiss, Drummond, Lhotsky, Backhouse, Bidwill, Harvey, Strzelecki, Vicary, Robertson, Adamson, Clowes, Davies, Milligan, Stuart, Scott, Oldfield, Archer. Postscript exxviii Errata. Page xxxix, line 6, for tropical read tropic of. Page exxviii, in P.S., line 5, for New Guinea read Celebes. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO THE FLORA OF TASMANIA/ * i. Preliminary Remarks. The Island of Tasmania does not contaiif a vegetation peculiar to itself, nor constitute an indepen dent botanical region. Its plants are, with comparatively few exceptions, natives of extratropical Australia ; and I have consequently found it necessary to study the vegetation of a great part of that vast Continent, in order to determine satisfactorily the nature, distribution, and affinities of the Tasmanian Flora. From the study of certain extratropical genera and species in their relation to those of Tasmania, I have been led to the far more comprehensive undertaking of arranging and classifying all the Australian plants accessible to me. This I commenced in the hope of being able thereby to extend our knowledge of the affinities of its Flora, and, if possible, to throw light on a very abstruse subject, viz. the origin of its vegetation, and the sources or causes of its peculiarity. This again has induced me to proceed with the inquiry into the origin and distribution of existing species ; and, as I have already treated of these subjects in the Introduction to the New Zealand Flora, I now embrace the opportu nity afforded me by a similar Introduction to the Tasmanian Flora, of revising the opinions I then entertained, and of again investigating the whole subject of the creation of species by variation, with the aid of the experience derived from my subsequent studies of the Floras of India and Australia in relation to one another and to those of neighbouring countries, and of the recently published hypo theses of Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace. No general account of the Flora of Australia having hitherto been published, nor indeed a com plete Flora of any part of it, I have been obliged, as a preliminary measure, to bring together and arrange the scattered materials (both published and unpublished) relating to its vegetation to which I had access. Those which are published consist of very numerous papers relating to the general botany of Australia, in scientific periodicals, and appended to books of travel, amongst which by far the most important are Brown's ' General Remarks, Geographical and Systematical, on the Botany of Terra Australis,' published in the Appendix to Captain Flinders' Voyage, now nearly half a century ago ; Allan Cunningham's Appendix to Captain King's Voyage, which appeared in 1827 ; Lindley's Report on the Swan River Botany ; and Mueller's, on the Tropical Botany of Australia. There are also some special essays or descriptive works on the Floras of certain parts of the continent : of * Reprinted from the first volume of Dr. Hooker's ' Flora of Tasmania;' published in June, 1859. 6 II FLORA OF TASMANIA. these the most important are Brown's ' Prodromus,' of which the only published volume appeared in 1810; the 'Plantae Preissianae,' edited by Professor Lehmann, and containing descriptions, by vari ous authors, of about 2250 species (including Cryptogamiae) of Swan River plants ; Dr. Mueller's various Reports on the Flora of Victoria, and his numerous papers on the vegetable productions of that colony ; and Lindley's Appendices to Mitchell's Travels. The unpublished materials chiefly consist of the vast collections of Australian plants made during the last half-century, and these having been obtained from all parts of the continent, and care fully ticketed as to locality, etc., supply abundant materials for the investigation of the main features of the Australian Flora. In another part of this Essay I propose to give a short summary of the labours of the individuals by whom these and other Australian collections have been principally ob tained, and of the routes followed by the expeditions which they accompanied. The majority of the collections were, either wholly or in part, transmitted to Sir William Hooker, forming the largest Australian herbarium in existence, and of which the published portion is in value greatly exceeded by the unpublished ; for although about two-thirds of the plants have been described, only about half of these have been brought together in a systematic form ; nor, since the publication of Brown's Appendix to Flinders' Voyage, has the Flora of the whole continent been considered from a general point of view. And, before entering on the field of inquiry so successfully explored by Brown half a century ago, I must pay my tribute to the sagacity and research exhibited in the essay to which I have alluded.