Excerpt from Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia (Incorporated), Vol. 42: With Thirty-Two Plates and Twelve Figures in the d104

The characteristic scrub association of the sclerophyllous woodland has Eucalyptus lcucoccylon as the dominant tree, but the bulk of thevegetation consists of very many species of shrubs averaging 1 m. High, and sometimes forming a close thicket. But little shade is cast, however, owing to the small size of the leaves. Such an association has been compared with the magui of the Mediterranean, or the chaparjral of California by Warming (13: p. Bulbous and tuberous plants are common in this association in South Australia, as in those of the Mediterranean and Cape Colony. In the alluvial area considered they are, however, unusually abund ant. It is, moreover atypical in the abundance of the sedge (schoenus apogon) and in the change between the relative pro-portions of shrubs on the one hand and g-eophytes and ephemerals on the other. In this respect it agrees with the alluvial swamp described by Diels Provided it be understood that the presence of standing water, or indeed any considerable soil moisture, is merely seasonal, and that there is a prolonged period in which the ground is baked hard, the area may be regarded as a swamp. True fresh-water swamps, the soil of which is wet most of the year, are not common in the hilly regions of South Australia, and they present a very different flora.

It is as members of the geophytic element in this seasonal swamp on alluvial sands that Iso-'e'tes and Phylloglossum occur. Isoetes appears to have a wider range, but in all other stations known at present it is a geophyte on alluvial sandy soil, only isolated plants being actually submerged during the growing season. Isoetes (fig. 3) agrees with many of its cogeners in general size and approximate depth to which the stock is buried. 'phyll'oglossum is a much smaller plant than the other geophytes, for which reason Die-ls perhaps was led to class it with the ephemerals. It is, however, not ephemeral, but typically geophilous in its growth. Its annual tuber, sunken by a stalk to a constant average depth, is functionally comparable with the many other tubers, etc., developed by its geophytic neighbours, from which Phyllo glossum differs so markedly in size.

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