rnal structure, or
external habit, a few remarks on a general comparison of the vegetation
of the North-west Coast, with the other shores of Terra Australis, will
conclude this notice.

It is very necessary to premise, that the plants observed and collected
upon the North-west Coast, during the late voyages, are not to be
considered as even a distant approach to an entire Flora of that
extensive line of shore; since the long-established droughts of the
seasons (as already remarked) in which the greater part of that coast was
visited, had wholly destroyed plants of annual duration, with most of the
Gramineae, and had indeed generally affected the mass of its herbaceous
vegetation. The collections, therefore, can simply be viewed as a
gleaning, affording such general outlines of characteristic feature, as
will enable the botanist to trace its affinity to the more minutely
defined vegetation of the other equinoctial shores of the continent, as
well as perceive its general, and, in some instances, almost total want
of relation to the botany of other parts, in the more temperate or higher
latitudes, where certain striking peculiarities of the Australian Flora
more particularly exist.

Upon a general comparison of those collections that were thus formed on
the North-west Coast, with the plants of the North and East Coasts, aided
also by some few observations made during the voyages, it appears that
(with the exception of Gompholobium, Boronia, Kennedia, and one or two
unpublished species not referred to any family) the genera (of which
several are proper to India) are the same, although the species are very
distinct upon the several coasts.

Notwithstanding an identity of genera has been remarked upon their
opposite shores, there are, nevertheless, certain others, frequent upon
the East Coast, that appear wholly wanting on the north-western shores:
of these, the existence of some, even in the tropical parts of New South
Wales, seems governed by the primary formation of the coast, its
mountainous structure, and consequent permanency of moisture in a greater
or less degree; namely, almost all the genera of Filices, the parasitical
Orchideae, Piper, Dracontium and Calladium (genera of Aroideae) Commelina
and Aneilema, Calamus and Seaforthia, Hellenia a solitary Australian
genus of Scitamineae, some genera of Rubiaceae, particularly Psychotria
and Coffea, certain genera of Asphodeleae, as Cordyline, and a genus
allied to it, w