though scanty of soil, are covered with an immense variety of plants;
among others, a magnificent species of Angophera occupied the usual
place of the Eucalyptus, which, however, here as on the eastern side,
generally forms the principal feature in the botany of the country,
accompanied by Mimosa, Correa, Melaleuca, Casuarina, Banksia, and
Xanthorea. The brome, or kangaroo glass, was most abundant. On a more
elevated flat, a little further up the river, the botanist observes that
the "magnificence of the Banksia and arborescent Zamia, which was here
seen thirty feet in height, added to the immense size of the Xanthorea
near this spot, impart to the forest a character truly tropical." He
says that about five miles to the eastward of the river, there is an
evident change in the character of the country: extensive plains of the
richest description, consisting of an alluvial deposit, equalling in
fertility those of the banks of the River Hawkesbury in New South Wales,
and covered with the most luxuriant brome grass. The Casuarina, so
common near the limestone ridge of the coast, here disappears, and is
succeeded by a pendulous species of Metrosideros, which continues to the
source of the river.

"From this point," says Mr. Fraser, "the country resembles, in every
essential character, that of the banks of those rivers which fall to
the westward of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, varying
alternately on each bank from hilly promontories of the finest red
loam, and covered with stupendous Angopheras, to extensive flats of
the finest description, studded with magnificent blue and water gums,
and occasional stripes of Accacias and papilionaceous shrubs,
resembling the green wattle of New South Wales."

The higher the river is ascended, the more extended the flats become,
and the better is the quality of the soil. Here the country is said to