Abstract
AT a moderate computation, the flora of Australia contains some eleven thousand species of vascular plants. These are found over an area about twenty-five times the size of Great Britain and Ireland, in an island continent which extends through more than 28° of latitude. It is no easy task to select for illustration a fair example of such a flora. In spite of its title, the present book can scarcely be said to have done so. About ninety per cent of the plants figured and described in it come from the coastal district of New South Wales or the adjacent highlands. It is true that many of these same species do extend into Queensland, and a smaller number south into Victoria, but the representation of the floras of Tasmania or South Australia is slight. The small number of Western Australian plants included gives no useful impression of the peculiar flora of that State.
Wild Flowers of Australia
By Thistle Y. Harris. Pp. xviii + 198 + 65 plates. (Sydney and London: Angus and Robertson, Ltd., 1938.) 8s. 6d.
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OSBORN, T. Wild Flowers of Australia. Nature 144, 7 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144007a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144007a0