Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 2: Performed between the years 1818 and 1822King, Philip Parker
History
Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 2: Performed between the years 1818 and 1822
King, Philip Parker
Australia -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Australia
CAPRIFOLIAE, Juss. The situation of Loranthus and Visvum, in the system,
appears to be undetermined by authors. M. Jussieu associated them with
Rhizophora, in the second section of this order, from which Mr. Brown has
separated this latter genus, and with two others found in Terra
Australis, has constructed a distinct family, named Rhizophoreae;
suggesting, at the same time, the analogy of Loranthus and Viscum to
Santalaceae, and particularly to Proteaceae. The genus Loranthus, of
which nearly the whole of its described species have been limited to the
tropics, is, however, sparingly scattered on all the Coasts of Australia,
where about eleven species have been recently observed, parasitical
chiefly upon certain trees that constitute the mass of the forests of
that vast continent; namely, Eucalyptus, Casuarina, Acacia, and
Melaleuca.
A solitary and very remarkable deviation from the usual natural economy
of Loranthus, is observed in a species (L. floribunda) described and
figured by M. Labillardiere, which is found on the shores of King
George's Sound, where, in no way recognising the dependent habits of its
congeners, it rises from the soil to a tree fifteen feet high, being
never remarked relying upon other vegetables for its subsistence. Viscum
is found in the colony of Port Jackson, to which it is not confined,
having been also gathered at Endeavour River, on the same coast, within
the tropic. The southern range of the two genera seems to be nearly
beyond the fortieth degree of latitude; but in the northern hemisphere,
Loranthus exists in Siberia.
UMBELLIFERAE. The equinoctial portion of the Herbarium contains only
three or four plants of this extensive European order, belonging to
Hydrocotyle, Azorella of Cavanilles and Labillardiere (from which
Trachymene of Rudge is probably not distinct) and a suffruticose plant
referred to Cussonia, that have been collected upon the East Coast. Upon
the north-western shores, Azorella was alone remarked, of which a species
is very general upon its main and islands, and chiefly remarkable for its
gigantic herbaceous growth.
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