File:The countries of the world - being a popular description of the various continents, islands, rivers, seas, and peoples of the globe (1876) (14780310455).jpg

Identifier: countriesofworld04brow (find matches)
Title: The countries of the world : being a popular description of the various continents, islands, rivers, seas, and peoples of the globe
Year: 1876 (1870s)
Authors: Brown, Robert, 1842-1895
Subjects:
Publisher: London New York : Cassell, Petter, Galpin & co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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are *For an exhaustive account of the Australian trees and plants, rulr Bentham: Flora Amtraliensh; MuUer:Trrigmeiita Phijtographiie Aiistra/is ; and lloore, in Industrial Progress of New South Wales (Sydney, 1870). 164 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD. found, but their range does not extend much south of Sydney. The Norfolk Island pine(p. Mi), allied to the bunya-buuya tree (p. 153), and the grass-tree (Xaul/iorrhau), the blackbov, or grass gum-tree, a species of the lily order, of which several species form charac-teristic features in the Australian landscape, are also limited to this belt, though they arefound in various of the off-lying islands. ^liiller has calculated that the flora of Australia(including Tasmania) comprises about 10,000 species, of which less than one-half areperhaps peculiar to it, and very few indeed of these are common to Europe. Theleguminous and composite orders comprise nearly one-fourth of the species. The myrtaeeous fA A,, ■fk,:-^M.:-
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THE ^IOTTEL^ ItuWEll BIKD UF AUbTHALlA (C/tta»iyduJcra niactdafu). )ilants, ferns, and grasses come next. But the most conspicuous feature in Austi-alianbotany are the Proteaceous plants (silky oaks, tulip tree, beef-wood, &c.), almost peculiarto that part of the world. Then come, in the order of their abundance, the orchids,epacrids, hemlock order, the BiosmcEc, a subdivision of the rues, the Liliacese, the Labiatas,or dead-nettle family, the Goodenia>, the Figworts, and the Salsolaceai. The buttercuporder, the epacrids, and the Rosaeeae are not found north of the equator. The animals of Australia are quite as peculiar as the plants. Few of them are foundelsewhere, while some of the leading groups of the continent and neighbouring islands areentirely wanting. For instance, there are no monkeys, ruminants (chewers of the cud), orpachyderms (pig and elephant order), and the great group of carnivorous animals is repre- AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS. 165 sented solely by the dog-lookinw din

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