i ce) Wh Ee OO OO ayes o'@ e' Sa we ee SAO Ot Ae tee ease « Cw eeeet ; 4% Te Oe a ee eee. ieee ee wee 3M 24 8'v'ele's Stenae ht ROLLY Pee Pee Li teed eee weeeneve hed ew ewes eb SRE TY ewer evase © O 6 awe te teed a ates Stearn ee MORE een et eee Oe eee fee wee ee, Tee ee ee ¢'6 -* f-* ee ee oe . eo ee ee a oo. + a * ‘ LIBRARY OF THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. £192] Bruglt oman IL GTS. INDEX TO VICTORIAN NATURALIST. WACHTER, Wit PAGH Apple or Codlin Moth, The - 164 Aquatic Plants in N.S. Ww. - 176 Aster Frostii - - - 167 Australian Plants, News 38, 54, 87, 104, 118, 126, 166 Barnard, Presentation to Mr. 90 Bass Straits, Trip to Islands of 156 Beetle, A Remarkable Tenet corn - 120 Birds of Melton, The - - 70 Bird Notes - - - 152, 164 Book—Geology of Tasmania - 56 Botany of Croajingolong, The 34 Butterflies of Victoria, Noteson 83 Chloanthes Teckiana - - 104 Chorilena Hasselli = - 87 Codlin or Apple Moth, The - 164 Coleoptera of Mulwala, N.S.W., The - - - 117 Coleraine, A Dried- -up Creek near - 145 Collecting Trip to aan Hill 95 Correspondence re Bronze Cuckoo - - - 168 Correspondence, Breteewan of Birds” - - 152 Creek-bed, A Dried-up, near Coleraine - - 145 Croajingolong, Botany of - 34 Croajingolong, Trip to - Spe Croajingolong, Zoology of - 32 Cuckoo, Notes re Bronze - 168 Distribution of Aquatic Plants in N.S.W., Notes onthe - 176 East Gippsland, Lichens of - 57 Excursion to North Mirboo 77, 91 Fish, A Basket of - - - 111 Fungi of Season, The - - 107 Fungus, A Curious - - 119 PAGE Field Naturalists’ Club— Conversazione, The Ninth Annual - - - 45 Meeting, The Ninth fennel. 75 Proceedings, 41, 42, 44, 73, 75, 89, 103, 121, 138, 153, 154, 169 Geology of Tasmania - - 56 Gompholobium Eatonice - 38 Habits and Senses of eden 147 Helichrysum Stirlingii - - 166 Lichens from the Victorian Alps” - - - - 178 Lichensfrom Western Australia 180 Lichens of East Gippsland, The 457 Lichens New to Science - 61 Lichens, New Victorian - - 77 Logania Choretroides - - 118 Longicorn Beetle New for Victoria - - - - 120 Malden Island, Notes from - 123 Melton, The Birds of - - 70 Mirboo, Excursion to North 77, 91 Moth, The Apple or Codlin - 164 Mountains, A Winter J ourney inthe - - 139 Mulwala, N.S. W. , The Coleop- tera of | - - 117 Nancarrow, The ile R. ‘H. - 56 Notes from Malden Island - 123 Oldenlandia Psychotrioides - 654 Orchid, A New Victorian - 126 Peripatus, New Australian - 173 Plants, New Australian, 38, 54, 87, 104, 118, 126, Protection of Birds, The - 182 Rutherglen Flying-Bug Pest, Notes on the - - Senses and Habits of Spiders 147 iv INDEX. PAGE | PAGE Spiders, Habits and Senses of 147 Victorian Plants, New - - 166 Swan Hill, A Collecting Tripto 95 Victorian Tall Trees - 88 Tasmania, The Geology of - 46 Walhalla, Zoology of Tripto - 128 Trees, Tall Victorian - - SS Watts, The late H. - - 138 Trip to Croajingolong - - 1. Western Australia, Collecting Trip to Islands of Bass Straits 156 | in - - - 168 Victoria, Notes on the ap btee | Wild Flowers, Exhibien of - 106 flies of - - - ; 3 Winter Journey in the Moun- Victorian Fish - 2 - ai tains, A - - 139 Victorian Fungi - - - 107 | Zoological Notes Ge Trip to Victorian Lichens, New- 60, 77 | Walhalla - - 128 Victorian Orchid, New - - 126 | Zoology of Croajingolong, The 32 dadev) daw PAC ab 7A: Page 53, line 31.—Insert ‘‘ with small blunt leaves” after Dammara Palmerstonii. Page 64, line 2.—For “‘ Ballaria”’ read ‘‘ Baltaria.” Page 84, line 18.—For “‘ [unoniz” read ‘‘ Junonia.” Page 130, line 33 from top.—For ‘‘samples”’ read ‘‘examples.” Page 132, line 3 from bottom.—Insert comma after ‘‘end,” and for “larger” read ‘‘ longer.” Page 133, lines 21 and 22 from top.—For ‘‘ Geonemestes” read ‘* Geonemertes.” ; Page 183, line 26 from top.—EHrase comma after doubtful. Page 133, lines 13 and 14 from bottom.—For ‘‘arms”’ read ‘‘ anus.” Page 133, line 7 from bottom.—For ‘‘ Van” read ‘‘ von.” Page 134, line 9 from top.—For ‘‘ Van” read ‘‘ von.” Page 1386. line 8 from bottom.—For ‘‘Amphibolura” read ** Amphibolurus.”’ Page 136, line 6 from bottom.—For ‘‘an”’ read ‘“‘ our.” THE oe AND MAGAZINE 2 ae ous Club of =“ duets IP o° A “New GOMPHOLOBIUM FROM SoUTH- WESTERN AUSTRALIA, WitH NOTES ON OTHER ECIES OF THAT GENUS. By BARON voN MUELLER, M. . M. AND PH. De GB RSs ae “& PRICE SIXPENCE. ® Agents for Gurope: & CO., 37 Soho Square, London, ie : | = LNG ANE NN NN NE ee RN A ER ON NN ND . 4 \ , \ Oe SS 7 ri: y ¥ if we 7 » t \ ip x afi 3 SS r x x , x a \ Me BP) NS \ , XN s eX “iy Xe Z x t \ 1 Ne é y } . ; . x SN Ae (Twenty Years with PAUL THOMAS), IM PORTER AND MANUFACTURER GF FIRST- CLASS BOOTS AND SHOE Ladies and Gentlemen's Boots and Shoes made to Orde Ogg Oe eae a ae ae a eae ae CASH PRICES. AAA R RRR Low Heels and BROAD TOES. New Shipments by every Mail, direct from the ce < Gee Flinders Lane and Oollins Street, IVE Es a 3S OW Ee Ness As tev NOSANN3.L IW “aR > au) exomeyng IG ay Lote = ONOTODNINWOHD OYsniosox Age lata a Ait ( “~ N3aMOBIN = y an- SS $i ivo33024 e108a\aqn Asoquoulosg SuOS|IM| \ Se asILLy ASNIMISNIL UW, O2U vO NS YLLVONVNNOM Sa1VM HLNOS MAN: \ SNODOR © W WONG LW LivMiW apse or te tnt wol ger sar THE Mictorian aturalist. Vor. VI.—Nos. 1-2. MAY-JUNE, 1889. No06HO6 6 TRIP TO CROAJINGOLONG. By Proressor BALDWIN SPENCER AND C. FRENCH, F.L.S. THE trip of which the following is an account was first proposed to the Club by Baron von Mueller, who was anxious that advan- tage should be taken of the tracks now being cut through the district of Croajingolong. To him the Club is indebted for the kindly interest he has taken in the work, and for the naming of the rarer forms of plants brought back.* It may be mentioned that considerable difficulty was experienced in the trip, owing to the extent of ground which had to be covered in a comparatively short time, and to the fact that the great scarcity of food for horses rendered long marches frequently imperative ; also, over a considerable portion of the country recent bush fires have com- pletely destroyed its vegetation. This was especially the case in the district round about Bonang, where otherwise the flora would probably have been most interesting. The party which started on 28th December for Croajingolong was but a small one when compared with the large number of field naturalists who mustered on the deck of the Lady Loch last year bound for King Island. We only numbered five in all —Messrs. French, Frost, Jackson, Searle, and Spencer. Through the courtesy of Mr. Prevot, the station-master at Prince’s Bridge, we were relieved of all trouble with regard to extra luggage. Two members of the club, bound for Morwell, accompanied us as far as that ; and, after a hot journey, we reached Sale at Ip.m. Sale may be described as small, sleepy, and respectable, and we were by no means sorry when the coach put some distance between us and the township. glhe road leads along by the River Thompson, bordering upon which are rich alluvial flats, clear of water now, but doubtless deeply flooded in rainy seasons. The coach deposits its load, and the waggon its luggage, at a bridge built over the Latrobe River, close to the junction of this with the Thompson. We have just time to get on board the Dargo, and safely stow our luggage away, when the little steamer Starts, and we are off at a good rate down the Latrobe. Ten miles of river have to be passed along before the “ Lakes” are * The authors are much indebted for assistance to Messrs. Frost and Searle: to the former for information with respect especially to birds, and to the latter for measurements of heights and distances. oO THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. reached. The river is not more than twenty yards wide at most, and we can see nothing except the thin stream of water leading down between dense growths on either side of reeds, ti-trees, and gum trees. A line of green on the water’s edge, above this the bare stems of the ti-trees, then another line of thick green, with here and there masses of white blossom, and above this the tops of the low gums. Having noted along the river the presence of Eucalyptus rostrata, and Stuartiana, Cassinia, Arundo phragmites, Cyperus, Gahnia, Typha angustifolia, Senecto lautus, Melaleuca ericifolia, &c., &c., we hear the sound of the dinner-bell, reminding us that we have eaten nothing since leaving town early in the morning. Coming up on deck again we find the steamer just entering the first of the Lakes—Wellington. As far as scenery is concerned the Lakes—that is, the larger ones, which we are now passing across— are singularly devoid of it, There is a great extent of water (now . fortunately quite smooth), which stretches away on every side of us to the low-lying scrub and wood-covered banks. Sea-gulls are hovering around the boat, and black swan and duck are simply to be counted by the acre. On board is a party of red-coats, whose shooting would inspire the greatest confidence in the hearts of any enemies of Australia. After an hour or two of what they probably call sport, they contrived, by some chance, to wing one poor shag. From Lake Wellington a narrow channel leads across an intervening belt of low-lying land to Lake Victoria, and at the eastern end of this the steamer passes up a small channel and reaches Paynesville. Here passengers for the entrance tranship to the steamer Omeo, and we are soon crossing the east end of the lake known as Lake King. The scenery improves; the shores rise into low hills, clothed with trees, and as the sun sets we enter a small bend, and, turning abruptly, see the hotel at Rosherville, or Metung, with its six Lombardy poplars, forming a strange and refreshing contrast to the gums and ti-tree. Leaving Rosherville the stretch of water, which is too narrow to be called a lake, is bounded on the left hand, as we face towards the entrance, by high hills which descend abruptiy to the water’s edge. Rounding Jimmy’s Point, or Kalimna, as the blacks called it, the steamer enters the narrow strait of water leading eastward to the Entrance. Only a very thin belt of scrub-covered sand-hills separates this from the sea. A new cutting is now being made through the sand-hills: the operations have been carried on for now some length of time, and it will be a great advantage when they are completed and a satisfactory entrance made to the lakes. The present one is some distance to the east of the cutting, and, as is well known, is liable to shift its position, whilst its shallowness makes it almost useless. Shortly THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 3 before 9 o’clock we land at the pier at the Lakes’ Entrance, or Cunninghame ; and, after a drive of a mile through the wood in the darkness, and in apparent imminent danger of an upset every minute, reach the hotel, which lies exactly opposite the Entrance itself. SATURDAY, 29TH DECEMBER.—We spend the morning in a fruitless attempt to find someone who can drive us on to Orbost, and have to be content with a promise that we can have a coach next morning. Around the hotel the woods are full of fine specimens of Banksia serrata in flower and fruit, and on the sand we amuse the few natives who are watching us at a distance by what appear to be our somewhat irrational movements. We are, in reality, busily engaged in pursuing and capturing numbers of the beetle—Cvzcindela ypsilon. Seen from a distance, the sight of a grave elderly gentleman suddenly starting off at full speed after no apparent object, and as suddenly pouncing down upon nothing in particular but sand, is a rather curious one. Close by the seashore, sheltered on the one hand by a steep hillside, and on the other by a thick wood, we come across a small group of trees quite distinct from the coast vegetation by which it is - surrounded. It is almost within a stone’s throw of the sea, and though the woods all round are filled simply with gum trees and Banksias, we find growing in this sheltered spot this little group of trees, which, to use a geological term, looks like an outlier of the luxuriant vegetation of the inland region. We notice the Lilypilli (Augenia smithit), Smilax australis, Hedycarya cunningham, Aster argophyllus, Senecio bedfordi, Lyonsia straminea, and Eleocarpus cyaneus. SUNDAY, 30TH DECEMBER.—We leave the hotel before seven a.m., the coach being more than comfortably filled with our five selves and the great amount of baggage which we have thought it necessary to take, though it is only fair to add that this includes all our stores and collecting material. The woods are alive with bell-birds as we mount the hill leading up to Road- knight’s Hotel. The view from this is very fine: to the south it looks over the sea, right beneath it is the entrance and away to the west is the narrow strait of water leading to the lakes, with the hilly country inland, and between it and the sea a narrow strip of sand—for miles the coast line can be traced as it passes along the dreary ‘‘ Ninety-mile Beach.” We are fortunate in seeing two schooners tugged out over the bar: it must be weary work waiting inside, or beating about outside, until the worthy Captain Quayle, who acts as pilot at the entrance, gives the signal that the water on the bar is deep enough. From Roadknight’s Hotel the road leads through the wood, which is here largely made up of the “‘yellow box,” running more or less parallel to the sea, of which every now and then we get ‘ 4 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. glimpses until after some six miles we descend a cliff side and walk over the sand beach separating Lake Tyers from the open ocean. The low hills bounding the lake are prettily wooded, and amongst the trees can be seen the little church of the native settlement, around which the houses cluster much as if it were an English village. The sand beach lies very low, and the waters of the lake and sea must, at times, communicate with each other. The lake is alive with fish and game. A mile’s walk leads across to the low sandhills bounding what must once have been the eastern side of the entrance from the sea, and we pass over a stretch of sandy ground, on which grow Salicornia australis, Samolus repens, Mesembryanthemum australe, Mimulus repens, Spintfex hirsutus and Cuscuta. The ground rises slightly, leading on to sand ridges covered with Zeftospermum levigatum, Myoporum insulare, &c.; and then leads inland into woods with Eucalyptus melliodora, sieberiana, polyanthemos and botryoides, silver wattle, Banksia serrata, australis, integrifolia, and Exocarpus. Flowers are chiefly conspicuous by their absence, and we only find blue and pink Comesperma, Goodenia, Dillwynia, and the orchids Dipodium punctatum and Cryptostylis longifolia. For twenty miles the road passes through the same kind of country: the woods have recently been fired, and the scenery grows very monotonous. Some twenty-five miles from the entrance we reach a bush accommodation house, now called the Tydesley Hotel: it is a welcome break in the long ride, and after a short rest we start again for Orbost. Twelve miles driving through the same kind of country brings us to a sharp descent in the road, and leads on to the rich alluvial flats of the Snowy River: these are now green with crops of maize, and form a strong contrast to the desolate country through which we have been passing. The Snowy River, about thirty or forty yards wide, and flowing between deep banks, is crossed in a punt, there being at present no bridge: when one is built, it is to be hoped that the Government will still retain the services of the present “‘puntsman” as toll collector, or, if such an official be not wanted, in some position in which he may have the chance, by his calm, imperturbable manner, which allows of no undue haste, of demonstrating beyond doubt that there is plenty of time for everything, and no need for hurry in Orbost. It is most refreshing, when the traveller is at all anxious to cross the river, to hear in response to a cheerful ‘‘coo-ee” the reply, “Wait till oi’ve filled my poipe,” and to see the speaker quietly sit down on the opposite bank, pull cut, after some searching, his plug of tobacco, and then with great deliberation cut off the necessary amount, fill his pipe, and light up. The face, too, with its circle of rough hair, deeply furrowed forehead and mouth, all drawn down to the one corner, which grasps a be Sasaistsgotepeeteissaeeenete FE N.C VICTORIA THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 5 short clay pipe black with age, is not easily forgotten. However, he seems to be a master of the art of punting, and we are soon across the stream, and then, within a few minutes after leaving the river, are in the middle of Orbost. The township at present consists of one main street, with indications of one or two others, and gives promise of rising to importance in future years, when the now wild district of Croajingolong shall have become settled, and its valleys and mountain-sides brought under cultivation. Arrived in Orbost, we soon find our way to the house of Mr. James Cameron, who had very kindly taken a considerable ainount of interest in our trip, and to whom we are indebted for valuable assistance in several ways. Our chief difficulty concerns the engaging a guide and pack- horses ; but, after some delay this is accomplished, though we find that the preparations occupy so much time that it is New Year’s Day before we leave Orbost. Before going further, it may be as well to Tene briefly the principal sources of our knowledge with regard to Croajingolong. Many years ago now the Baron von Mueller traversed the eastern part of the country, and since that time, when he, amongst other things, discovered the presence of the Waratah, practically very little fresh information concerning the botany has been acquired. The geodetic survey party entered the district in 1870, when the boundary line between Victoria and New South Wales was marked out. Of this party Mr. Ellery was the head; under him were Messrs. Turton and Newton, with C. Walter as photographer and botanical collector. Tey completed the triangulation from Lakes Entrance to Mount Taylor, and also erected beacons on the highest points. It was during this trip that the party noticed the high point of Mount Ellery, which was named in honour of the government astronomer, although they afterwards discovered that the blacks had named it Goonegerah, or “ Egg” Mountain, from the shape of the stone on its summit. The photographs of Mr. Walter of Mount Ellery were copied in the Austratian News. Since then, in more recent years, surveyors have been at work and tracks cut through the country ; these tracks now bear the names of those who cut them, as Bruce’s and Whitelaw’s. Still more recently Mr. Merrall passed across, and recorded his observations, which had reference chiefly to the topography of the district, in a paper contributed to the Victorian branch of the Royal Geo- graphical Society of Australasia ; and, lastly, some valuable infor- mation is to be found in a paper by Mr. James Stirling, F.G.S., read before the Royal Society of Victoria in November last. Mr. Stirling had exceptional opportunities of seeing the district whilst in charge, during a considerable time, of Govern- ment prospecting parties, and his most valuable contributions 6 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. concern the topography and the broad geological features of the district. There still remains, especially with regard to the geology, which as yet has only been examined in a very general way, much work to be done; but it is of such a description that it can only be carried on by those who have the opportunity of spending a considerable amount of time in examining small areas. Mr. Stirling very kindly forwarded to usa copy of the departmental map, on which he had laid down the general course of the hill ranges and the broad geological features of the country, so far as they are to be gathered from a journey along the tracks. The difficulties attendant on any examination which lies outside the tracks can only be appreciated by those who have attempted it either here or in similar parts. To leave the track is to get into dense scrub or jungle; and on such a trip as ours, whilst to a certain extent we did do this, yet all that is practicable to do is to gain a general idea of the country and to collect more or less along the tracks. It must be remembered, too, that tracks in Croajingolong are themselves but very little frequented, and are often in a very wild state. IST JANUARY, 1889.—To return to our trip. It is the afternoon of New Year’s Day when we leave Orbost. Our party consists of the original five, with now the addition of our guide, Crawford. Three horses carry our packs ; the struggle between them for the honour of first place on the track or in the scrub is a matter of some concern to us. We soon find out that our guide has a wonderful, and, for ourselves, most useful knowledge of the country, and takes great interest, especially, in the geology of the district, being well acquainted with the general lay of the formations. Leaving Orbost, the track soon leads into the bush, and at first skirts the hills overlooking the flats of the Snowy River to the south. The forest is composed principally of stringybarks, with fewer ironbarks, and has, in parts, recently been burnt. Comes- perma ericinum is in flower, and Lomatia fraseri and Dipodium punctutum, but very little else, and the track leads over a succession of rather low ridges, of which the highest is 400 feet. After nine miles we come to the Brodribb River, owing in a very pretty valley shut in with hills. Close by the river is a group of Lillypillies and cotton trees, and beneath their shade, amongst the usual ferns, is a beautiful growth of Davallia dicksonioides. ‘The river is some 50 feet wide, and we have to carry the baggage _across by the trunk of a fallen tree. Our camp for the night (1)* lies by the side of a deep pool of water, the haunt of a platypus, which we disturb and see no more; and, after a very hot day, we * The numbers in brackets correspond with the numbers on the map, and refer to the positions of the different camps. THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 7 spend the evening bathing and smoking. By the camp there is a spot in which has lived for some time a large tiger snake. It has been seen here by several persons, at considerable intervals ; but, though anxious to secure it, we cannot get a glimpse of the animal. WEDNESDAY, 2ND JANUARY.—Leaving camp, we take Bruce’s track, leading north-east. ‘To the south-east rises Mount Ray- mond, a granite peak which forms the southernmost point of the central watershed of Western Croajingolong. Our way lies up a long spur leading up to the M‘Culloch Range. After walking for four miles we come to a surveyor’s camp at Raymond Creek, and there we put up a tent, in which to leave the greater part of our stores whilst we make a divergence soas to see the Cabbage Tree Creek. Leaving the track, we pass southwards into the scrub in the direction of Mount Raymond. The day is very hot, and the horses, lightly laden, make rather too quick progress for those of us who are on foot. The scrub is thick, and composed of Persoonia (6 ft. to 15 ft. high), Bursaria spinosa, Acacia discolor and /inearis ; on the ground is a thick growth of star and coral ferns and bracken, which, together with the fallen logs they conceal from view, and patches of sword-grass, make travelling very tedious and as uncomfortable as possible, more especially as the sun is beating down upon us, and there is not a breath of fresh air. Of flowers, we find the orchids Dipodium punctatum and Caleana major, with Wahlenbergia and Lobelia simplicicaulis. This kind of work goes on for some miles, until at last we pass out on to a somewhat open stretch of ground where is an out- crop of granite : we have hitherto been on silurian schists and sandstones. Turning more to the east, and leaving Mount Raymond to the right hand, we mount a recently fired ridge and descend through jungle to a creek, which we call Todea Creek, on account of the rich growth of the fern along its banks. Here, unfortunately, we lost our only collecting umbrella: it is lost in the jungle, and will doubtless, when found by some selector, give rise to not a little conjecture concerning the ways and manners of the previous inhabitants of the land. After passing another stream, which from the nature of its immediate surroundings we name Muddy Creek, we mount a ridge and pass through scrub where the ground is covered with Lycopodium densum in fruit, together with the shrubs and flowers we have seen before, and the same species of gums. The creek at the base of the hill forms a good stream of water, and having been first traced for some considerable distance by our guide, we call it Crawford’s Creek: along its banks Restio tetraphyllus is growing beautifully, together with the usual ferns, and crossing the stream by a small bridge made by Crawford, we find our- selves on a flat piece of ground covered with Leptospermum 8 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. myrsinoides in flower, and can only regret the loss of our umbrella. At length, after a walk of about sixteen miles, we reach the - Cabbage Tree Creek, and, for the sake of fresh air, pitch our camp on the top of a hill 500 feet high overlooking the creek (2). The vegetation below is very thick indeed, and the evening is coming on ; but we can just make out the tops of a group of palms down in the valley beneath us. As we put the tents up amongst the Banksias on the hill top it comes on to rain heavily, but fortunately clears off later on, and allows us to get dry again, and we hope for a fine day ta spend amongst the palms. THURSDAY, 3RD JANUARY.—Leaving camp about 8 a.m., we go down to the bank of the creek, the whole hillside being covered with Goodia lotifolia in fruit. ‘The stream is some twenty- five feet wide, and flows through a dense mass of vegetation, prominent among which are great Dicksonias and Todeas. We cross by a mossy trunk, and, turning to the right in a fern gully, see a solitary palm, with its head standing out high above the other trees. Continuing along by the creek the vegetation grows very thick, and Smzlax and Clematis too frequent for walking to be pleasant. The trees are principally white-gums of various sizes, with Lilypillies, musk, P2téosporum bicolor, El@ocarpus, and the cotton tree ; and amongst ferns we note the usual Dicksonias and Alsophilas, with Wymenophyllum nitens and crispatum, Poly- podium scandens, Llechnum cartilagineum, Asplenium laxum, Gleichenia circinata and flabellata, Lomaria pattersoni, discolor, and procera, and Preris umbrosa and incisa. Amongst the trees are many young cabbage palms of various heights, varying from one to fifty feet, and after some time we find a small clearing, at one side of which is a group of five tall ones standing out clearly (fig. 3). Their tall, thin, ringed trunks, running up toa height of more than roo feet, are each covered by a tuft of leaves, the long finger-like processes of which hang down and give a very character- istic appearance to the trees. Directly the heads of the palms grow out into the open above the general vegetation of the valley, the sun’s heat seems to scorch the leaves up, and they have a brown, withered appearance. The most beautiful are, certainly, the young trees, from 30 to 60 feet in height (fig. 2), which are still sheltered from the direct rays of the sun. ‘Their leaves are both larger in size than those of the older trees and of a beautiful fresh green calour.- As they die off they are replaced by a constant growth of new ones, and, when withering, hang down for some time by the side of the trunk, and finally fall off. Beneath the trees we find plenty of seeds lying upon the ground. As soon as we left camp it had begun to rain, and all day long it goes on pouring in torrents, but we are determined to see as much as we can, and also, if possible, to get a sketch or two Seer RIA .N.C Micro ie FLN.C. Victoria. THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 9 of the palm trees. A soaking wet day is not an ideal one for sketching out in the open, éspecially amongst thick foliage. The ground by the side of the creek is very rich, and the jungle dense with matted growth of Clematis, Smilax, and bracken fern, Dicksonias and Alsophilas, These, with young gum trees, prevent us from getting any good view of the palms, and it takes hours of hard work cutting down trees and the undergrowth of scrub ‘before we can get anything like a satisfactory view. All the time it has been pouring in torrents, and we are drenched to the skin ; however, by the united labours of the party we do manage to get a few rough sketches, though the dripping “pioneers” resting from their toils, and the “special artist” under his ‘‘ mia-mia” of fern fronds, present rather a pitiable, if not ludicrous sight. Fortunately, there are no living creatures, save cockatoos and lyre-birds, to pay any attention to the strange habits of “ field naturalists.” The Cabbage Palm (Zzvistona australis) is not, of course, by any means rare in certain parts. The curious point about: these particular ones is that they are found only in this one spot, within a short distance of the sea coast, in Victoria, and consider- ably to the south of the region to which they are otherwise confined. ‘Their existence in this part was first made known scientifically by Baron von Mueller, who passed over the Snowy in the early days, before Orbost was thought of, and when the natives were far from friendly. At this time the Macmillans seem to have had an outlying hut on the west bank of the Snowy. How the palms came to occupy this position is a problem which can never be positively settled. Two theories are possible. One is that they are relics of a flora which was once spread widely over Southern Australia in times past, when perhaps thé climate was warmer than it is now. If this be so, then these palms alone remain in this particular spot as relics of a flora elsewhere lost. It is very difficult to believe that this is the case, and’ difficult to understand why they should have been preserved in this particular spot when they were lost in other parts where the conditions as to climate, soil, and vegetation are apparently quite similar, or, at any rate, so similar that the plant would, if it depended upon these conditions, have as much chance of life in the one spot as in the other. A second theory is perhaps better, though it must be, of course, a matter of conjecture. We may suppose that, at some period, the seeds have been brought to this spot from the part of Australia where the palms flourish. Two agents of transmission are possible—one is water, the other is birds. The palms grow by the side of rivers, into which their seeds must often fall, and at times be carried out to sea. Darwin has shown, first, that some seeds can even withstand immersion in salt water for 133 days ; and, secondly, that being eaten by birds will not prevent the 10 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. germination of certain seeds, if by any means they pass out of the body again; as, for example, when birds disgorge their food after retaining it in the body for a considerable length of time. In the case of the palm trees, it is possible that the seeds were carried to the spot where now the trees flourish by water or birds, or perhaps partly by both agencies, and that, falling on the ground, two or three seeds perhaps germinated and gave rise to the present small colony of palms.* It is more easy to under- stand why they are so extremely limited in distribution in Vic- toria on the theory that the seeds have been at some time brought to the Cabbage Tree Creek, rather than on the theory that these palms are the relics of a once widely distributed group, and that the conditions remained favourable for their permanence only along the banks of this creek. Probably there are many places in Victoria in which the seeds, if sown, would germinate; but the chances against their reaching such spots by natural means, and in fit condition for germination, are enormous, and the two conditions, we may suppose, have only been fulfilled in this instance. We spend the day searching about the banks of the creek, and return to our camp as evening comes on, satisfied with what we have seen, and, after having been soaked through since the early morning, are grateful for a fine night and a large camp fire, and, not least, for a little of the medical comforts prescribed by our most experienced member. FRIDAY, 4TH JANUARY.—The horses have wandered some few miles away, which gives us a further opportunity of looking around. ‘The white goshawk is flying about, but out of range; so is the common sulphur-crested cockatoo, and down in the gullies we can hear the lyre-bird. As we retrace our steps to Bruce’s track we follow as nearly as possible the path by which we came and once more get thoroughly wet as we push our way through the dripping scrub. In the thick grass we find a large land shell, a species of Budimus, which is not uncommon in the district. The principal birds which we see, both in the scrub here and elsewhere, are the scrub and yellow-breasted robins, the blue and long-tailed wrens, the little brown Acanthiza, the Australian pipit, the New Holland and wattled honey-eaters, the grey-backed sosterops and brown tree-creeper, the frontal shrike-tit and fan- tailed cuckoo (at Crawford’s Creek), the white-shafted and rufus- fronted fantail, the white-fronted Sericornis, the black-faced Grauculus, and the forty-spotted pardalote. Everywhere in the woods we see and hear the pied and white-backed crow-shrikes and the piping magpie, the coach-whip bird, the lyre-bird, the * A member of the club suggested, during a discussion on this point, that the seeds might possibly have been carried to this point in the “ dilly” bags which the blacks were accustomed to carry with them on their marches. THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 11 Gang Gang cockatoo, with the king lory and Pennant’s parrakeet, and, of course, the laughing jackass. After walking twelve miles we reach our stores, and have to put our tents up, whilst the rain falls heavily ; though, fortunately, in the course of the evening it clears off, and we manage to get tolerably dry (3). Weare visited in the evening by Mr. Lees, the surveyor in charge of the camp close at hand. He most kindly offered us any assistance which lay in his power in the matter of stores, &c., and our best thanks are due to him for his kindness. Some of our party paid a visit to his camp in the evening. SATURDAY, 51H JANUARY.—By invitation, we breakfast early with Mr. Lees in the survey camp, and are enabled through his kindness to send letters into Orbost. It is still early when we part, as our paths lie in different directions, and we are soon passing along Bruce’s track leading north-east. We are now on a long spur leading up to the M‘Culloch Range, and the ground _ gradually rises: the forest is composed principally of young stringybarks, with burnt trunks from which young foliage is sprouting out, giving a curious appearance to the trees. The hills are composed of silurian rocks until after about five miles, according to the survey measurements, a change comes, and the track passes over a bed of conglomerate with large quartz fragments. It may here be mentioned that the traveller in Croajingolong finds two or three different styles of measurements of distances. The first is the surveyor’s ; this appears to be taken in a straight line from tree to tree along the track, without paying any regard to the ups and downs and roundaboutness of the track. The second is the idea of distance of those who ride on horseback, and which, greater than the former, is considerably less than the mileage as registered by the pedometer of our party as we tramp along on foot. After less than a mile’s walk we pass off the conglomerate on to silurian sandstones. The track now bends round, turning south-east, and looking through the trees over a valley to the north, we can see the central points of the M‘Culloch Range, Mount Lookout, and behind this Mount Tanglefoot. Both are conical peaks clothed with forest to their tops. After eight miles’ walk we halt for the midday rest in a gully just before starting a steep climb on to the range. ‘The valley is filled with large white-gums, amongst which we see the cotton tree and Pittosporum, with Smilax and supplejack, and the dark leaves of Lyonsia straminea. Southwards from the gully runs one _ of the streams which form the Cabbage Tree Creek. After a short halt we start up the hillside, and, leaving the sandstone, pass on to granite. In Mr. Stirling’s map this granite is apparently omitted, but it continues from this point for some six 2 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. or seven miles with little interruption. Over the top of the spur it passes into a gneissic formation, succeeding this is a band of quartzite, then granite again, and descending the hill on the opposite side silurian sandstones again appear near the base, and the same formation then continues Ha some long distance northward. As we mount the ridge the track turns northward, and at a height of 1,200 feet we see the first blue-gum amongst a forest composed principally of stringybarks and ironbarks and white- gums. Here and elsewhere we notice that when the blue-gum appears the ironbark disappears. ‘This is of interest, because in such parts of Victoria as Neerim the blue-gum and ironbark (Z. siebertana ) are always found together. The blue-gums are frequent on to the top of the ridge, where at the highest point the aneroid registers 1,800 feet. In his recent paper Mr. Stirling has curiously not noticed the presence of the blue-gum, though it is to be found in plenty in several parts of Western Croajingolong. Close to the highest point Whitelaw’s track passes off to the north along the M‘Culloch Range, leading by the side of Mounts Lookout, Tanglefoot, and Jack to the Miners’ track. Bruce’s track now leads eastward, and from the side of the high ridge on which we are travelling a very fine view is obtained. The hill runs down steeply into a deep gorge beneath us. To the south lies the undulating, densely-wooded country drained by the Cabbage Tree Creek and Yeerung River, and away in the dim distance we can just see the level line of the sea. ‘The track turns more to the south, and, after a walk of about 16 miles, we descend a steep hillside, and find ourselves in an old surveyor’s camp, in a lovely spot, just where one of the heads of the Cabbage Tree Creek takes a bend, and where, on the inner side of the curve, is a small piece of comparatively flat land (4). The hills around are high and covered with forest and thick scrub. The river, which contains beautiful blackfish, is shut in with fern trees, Lilypilli, Zicocarpus, Pittosporum bicolor, and the usual creepers, and just before our tents, rising directly from the water’s edge, is a beautiful waratah plant some 30 feet high. ‘The Victorian waratah was first described by the Baron von Mueller from Croajingolong in 1860. He discovered the plant growing along the valley of the Genoa River in Eastern Croajingolong, though there the plant does not attain the great size (from 20 ft. to 50 ft.) which it does in the western district. Baron von Mueller named it Ze/opea oreades, regarding it as a new species, in which Bentham agrees with him. Sir Joseph Hooker, however, regards it as a variety of the Tasmanian Z. ¢runcata, with downy stem. It is worth noting that though we saw hundreds of speci- mens during our journey not one of the very many examined bore this character. Jays and white and black and Gang Gang THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 13 cockatoos are all around, and as evening comes on we:hear the mo-poke, and above the camp the half-whistling, half-grating sound made by a flying longicorn beetle. The sound seems to come from all around, and there is no wonder that the blacks regarded it as something uncanny. SUNDAY, 6TH JANUARY.—We spend the day searching in the gully along the river banks and on the hillsides around, but find nothing of any special interest, there being a somewhat remark- able dearth of animal life, and, save the waratah, nothing of special interest botanically. One waratah we find which attains a height of 50 feet. MonbDay, 7TH JANUARY.—Leaving camp we mount a ridge, and very shortly descend again and cross another of the heads of the Cabbage Tree Creek, beyond which a stretch of undulating country, with no features of any special interest, watered by the M‘Kenzie and its tributary streams. The M‘Kenzie rises in Tanglefoot, and flows south to join the Bemm River near its mouth., In its course alluvial gold has not very long ago been found, and we come across a party of prospectors searching the country. ‘The track leads through a gully beside the stream, in which Z7istania laurvina grows to a great size, and amongst other ferns we note the presence of Hymenophyllum tunbridgiense. In the gully, also, we see the satin bower-bird. By the side of the M‘Kenzie is a small bark hut, on one of the few level pieces of country which we have come across. East of the stream we pass the prospectors’ camp, and, mounting on to a ridge, halt for lunch, after two or three miles’ walk through forest, part of which has recently been burnt. The country is fairly good. The trees. are principally stringybark, with at times blue and white gums. and messmate. ‘There is a great sameness in all the country in this part: first a ridge covered with the usual scrub of young gums and native cherries, Acacias, Persoonias, and various Asters ;. Goodia in fruit, Comesperma in flower everywhere, with Good- enias, Dilwynnias, Lobelias, Sceevola, Wahlenbergia, Helichrysum, and Dipodium. Acre after acre of ground is covered with the beautiful coral and star ferns, of which one never grows tired, or with Pteris aguilina and incisa and Davallia dubia. After the ridge comes a creek with a dense growth of gully vegetation, and on the rich soil large white-gums growing, then another ridge and another creek, and so on mile after mile. In the afternoon we walk along a high ridge (1,700 ft.) which bears away to the north-east, and then turning more north we hear the sound, and can just catch sight of the waters of the Arte River, falling down over rocks from the hillside. The track keeps by the side of the Arte for some distance as it runs north to join the Goolengook, but before reaching this we camp for the night by the side of the former. There is no good camping ground ; 14 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. but we have come nearly twenty miles, and, not having by any means rushed along, it is growing late, so we must choose the best available spot, and, clearing a space, we pitch the tents, and make ourselves as comfortable as we can for the evening and night (5). Tuespay, 8TH JANUARY.—Just before starting, and when, for- tunately, we are all out in the open, a tree falls between our two tents, catching the corner of one and flattening it out. Had it fallen in the night, at any rate one member of the party would have gone the rest of the trip minus his toes, and we are thank- ful that matters are no worse. We leave the uncomfortable camp without regret and again strike north, till we descend sharply to the Goolengook, by the side of which is a small flat, now overgrown with a rank growth of grass. In the valley the soil is rich, and there are some fine white gums. Beyond the river, in the angle between the Goolengook and the Black Watch Creeks, is a high ridge renning down from the north, separating the two rivers, both of which rise near Mount Ellery. In half a mile we ascend 400 feet from the creek, and here stop to put up a tent, in which to store part of our provisions, as we intend to come near this spot on our return journey. From our tent we have a fine view of the country away to the north. We are looking up the valley of the Goolengook. On each side the hills come down into the broad valley, blocking up the northern end of which is Mount Ellery with its two main peaks, one of which is made prominent by being crowned with a large mass of granite which stands out clearly against the sky. Save for this single block of granite, there is nothing to be seen but one vast extent of forest, looking down upon which the tree-tops appear to form a perfectly flat field. Up the hill on which we stand the track winds, with the pack-horses in single file. In the middle dis- tance everything is purple, and beyond this range after range of blue hills falls into the valley, until, in the far distance, the large mass of Mount Ellery closes in the scene. Just beyond our tent Bruce’s is joined by the Miners’ track, ~ coming in from the west. Still rising, we reach a height of 1,100 feet, and cross to the southern side of the ridge, where the country has recently been fired, and descend 600 feet very abruptly, in a zigzag course, to the Black Watch Creek. Only a very few years ago gold was discovered in the creek anda “rush” took place. It was soon over, however, and now nothing remains but a few dangerous holes hidden by scrub, a broken-down bark hut, and a rudimentary letter-box on a tree. A mile’s scramble through jungle and scrub brings us toa curious little geological forma- tion, first discovered by Crawford, and not yet described ; in fact, no one has yet seen it besides the few miners who took part in the Black Watch “rush.” On the east side of the creek, lying THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 15 directly on the silurian sandstones and slates of which the steep hills are formed, is a little cliff, at most 200 feet long by 60 feet high, with a roughly semicircular face turned towards the creek, and on its top a flat platform covered with grass and Senecio Jautus. The main mass of the cliff is formed of limestone, above which comes a layer of very moist, black-coloured soil, some 10 feet deep, though this does not appear to extend to the face of the cliff, and above the soil layers of moss, upon which lime has been deposited, so that they now form a crisp surface. At the present time water drips over the cliff face, upon which stalactites are formed as evaporation of the trickling water goes on. Where the lime has come from it is difficult to say ; but it must be dissolved by the water at a spot some considerable distance away, as there is no limestone in the near neighbour- hood, nor does there seem to be any other formation similar to this in the district. The deep layer of black soil on the surface must have been formed at a time when the water was not, as it is now, depositing lime ; and this layer is curious, inasmuch as it is quite different in appearance from the soil on the hillsides around, which is much lighter coloured. We halt beside the creek at midday for some little time, under the shelter of the Tristanias and fern trees, and then climb the steep hill leading to the north from the valley: the track goes up in a zig-zag for 600 feet, and from the top of the ridge (1,450 feet) we have fine views to the south-east, looking over the hills bordering the eastern side of the Bemm valley to the much less hilly region beyond, through which the Cann River flows. The track passes to the east side of the ridge, and we again find blue- gum trees ; whilst on the opposite side of the deep gorge rises a ridge apparently covered with nothing but blue-gum forest. Then comes a long gradual descent along a spur leading down to the Erinundra valley, through poor land, with only small stringybark gums, between which we can see the high ranges away to the north-west, and after an interesting walk of 1214 miles, we pitch our tents on a fair-sized level patch of ground near the spot at which the Buldah Creek joins the Erinundra (6). On the flat are the remains of an old bark shed, and what was once a garden for the use of the surveyor’s camp. ‘The trees on the flat—where, as the rank vegetation shows, the soil is rich—are principally white-gum, and a curious feature is to be noted with regard to them and also to the trees along the valley for some little way, and that is, that the mistletoe which has grown freely on them is all dead, though the trees are living: this not only occurs on one or two, but on all the gums around. WEDNESDAY, 9TH JANUARY.—The day isa very hot one. Two of our number go off into the hills with Crawford to the head of the Buldah Creek, 434 miles away through thick scrub and 16 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. jungle, to see a curious geological formation, which however turns out to be a silurian mica schist. At the head of the creek, at a height of 2,025 feet, the fern Cyathea cunninghami is found growing. The other three spend the day in the neighbourhood of the camp, hunting by the river, which is here overhung by large Tristanias, on whose trunks are endless epiphytic ferns, such as Hymenophyllum tunbridgiense,; whilst in the water Chara, in fruit, is found, and plenty of the river weed, Potamogeton natans, also in fruit. One of the most striking features of this part is the number and large size of the Tristanias, which, with their great trunks covered with mosses, ferns, and lichens, overhang the river along its whole course. During the morning the heat is intense, and a few sparks from the camp fire set the bush on fire : we have no little difficulty in extinguishing it, and have to take the tents down hurriedly and carry all our stores for safety down to the bank of the river. In the afternoon we chase a copper- head snake into a waterhole by the river, and after being totally immersed for 1% hours it comes to the surface quite fresh : here and elsewhere it is noticeable that the snakes take to water with ease—in fact, coming across a snake in a gully the first thing it does is to make for the stream and dive in. Late in the after- noon we pack up and about five start for our next camping ground, which is only a few miles ahead. Our way leads along by the Erinundra, which runs almost due south, having hollowed out for itself a deep gorge as it flows down from the coast range. We mount on to the side of a ridge, and then, descending, strike and cross the river. The scrub is very thick with tall bracken fern and Davalia dubia and Goodias, which are fast obliterating the track: now and then we pass waratahs, and the river is overhung, as usual, by fine trees of Tristania laurina and FPittosporum bicolor. After keeping for some distance to the east of the river, we cross where it takes a sudden bend round the base of a ridge up which the track leads amongst cotton trees, Acacias, Banksias, and great numbers of fine specimens, some at least 15 feet high, of Flumea elegans. As evening comes on, after a short walk of 6 miles, we descend to the river valley, cross the Ada, which runs down to join the Erinundra from the mountains on the west, and find ourselves in a small flat where is a bark shed, which we utilize as a sleeping place for the night: the shed only boasts, of course, of a roof supported on four poles, and on the windward side we hang up our tents as a protection (7). Down by the river is seen, for the first time on our trip, the fern Zomaria capensis, which, though so common elsewhere, appears to be rare in Croajingolong. THURSDAY, [OTH JANUARY.—Our camp seems to be rather a lively place: whilst enjoying a quiet breakfast, a large copper- head, apparently frightened, makes for the spot on which our THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 17 senior member is gracefully reclining after the Turkish fashion. He arises hastily, so does the rest of the camp, and in two minutes the beast is safely bagged (alive). Again we sit down, and in less than ten minutes comes another stampede. This ' time it is a large tiger snake, which makes for just the same spot, but only to find, almost before he has time to realize his position, that his head is transferred to alcohol. Leaving camp about eight o’clock we still travel northwards by the river side, along the valley, and then climb a ridge. The scrub is very thick, containing many cotton trees. The principal gum is the white one, but at times we come across blue-gum and now and then small blackwoods: in the whole district there are but few of these, and none of any large size. We are now and have been since a short distance before the last camp was reached, walking over granite, and large boulders of this lie in the beds of the small creeks descending from the hillside. The track gradually descends through burnt country, from the ridge to the Erinundra, and we halt for two or three hours by the side of a beautiful creek, the bed of which is made of large moss-grown granite masses. After lunch we spend some time searching along the creek, where the growth of ferns is very thick and fallen logs numberless. Every now and then we come across a lyre-bird showing his tail, and hear plenty of others in the scrub all around. A snake or two dive into the stream, but there is nothing of special interest beyond the usual gully vegetation and any number of bulldog ants and leeches. We had been warned before going that we should be plagued with any number of large and genuine Ticks ; but all that we can say, from our own experi- ence of Croajingolong is, that they are chiefly remarkable for their absence. We only saw one all the time, and that attacked one member of our party at the Lakes’ Entrance, whilst we were yet on the verge of civilization. By the side of the Erinundra the land is rich, and, after leaving our halting place, we pass some fine white-gums. The vegetation along the track is very thick, principally, as usual, Acacias, Persoonias, Goodias, young gums, with, on the ridge, Comesperma ericinum, the flower of which we are soon to lose sight of. Sword- grass and the climbing grass (Hrharta juncea) make us willing to keep to the track, where, though much overgrown along the valley, we can get along without entire loss of clothes and flesh. As we pass onwards the valley gets more and more hemmed in by hills, which increase in height, and becomes proportionately narrower ; the river cannot be seen for the growth of the Lilypilli, Elzocarpus, Tristania, Pittosporum, and here and there blackwood, which overhang it. The track leads up a steep hillside, and as we descend the other side, looking down upon the valley beneath, we can just, in the distance, catch a glimpse of falling waters 2 18 : THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. as the Erinundra tumbles over great granite masses at the foot of Mount Goon Murk. The scene is a very fine one. Right in front the Coast Ranges, nearly 4,000 feet high, block the way to the north; to the right rises Mount Bungywarr, peaked, and crowned to its summit with forest; to the left we are shut in by lofty © white-gums running up the mountain side; and beneath us the hill runs down steeply to the densely wooded valley. The track descends rapidly, and after an easy day’s march of nine miles we camp at the base of Goon Murk, close by a lovely group of Humea elegans, in full bloom, some of them being from 15 to 20 feet high (fig. 4). The Erinundra is here formed by the union of two streams. One close to our camp (8) comes down from the west of the mountain, through what, from its nature, has been called the “‘sorge of foaming waters ;” the other descends on the east side, and the two, joining together, flow south along the deep gorge which they have hollowed out forthemselves. ‘Though it is but early in the afternoon, the sunlight has left the valley ; and as evening comes On we can see it, long after we are in deep shade, lighting up the tops of the mountains. It is a perfect spot for a camp— at any rate, from a picturesque point of view—and. we wander up the stream which runs down the gorge till further progress is barred by dense vegetation and great granite rocks, over and through narrow clefts between which the water rushes down. FRIDAY, II1TH JANUARY.—This is perhaps our most interesting day, and is spent in climbing up the steep coast range. Very regretfully we leave the camp, with its waratahs and Humeas, whilst it is still in shade, and crossing the river, immediately begin the steep ascent of Goon Murk. The hill rises very steeply for 3,100 feet, then the track falls 100 feet, and leads through a fern gully, with a stream flowing away to the eastern branch of the Erinundra. We leave the granite and pass again on to silurian sandstones, extending to the gully. Up the first part of the ascent the forest is composed of fine white-gums, with blue-gums, stringy and iron barks. The cotton tree is abundant and large; so is the. pepper tree and the Persoonia, which is known locally as the “gebung,” and, in addition, waratahs of all sizes up to 4o feet abound. Of ferns, the most common is Lomaria procera; and amongst flowers those of Comesperma ericinum and Dipodium punctatum, which have accompanied us everywhere since leaving Orbost, disappear entirely. Not only here, but elsewhere in the trip, the absence of flowers is very disappointing, and we soon learn, to our regret, that we are two months too late for them. Reaching the gully, we spend some little time in wandering up it, searching for animals and plants: for the first time we meet with the sassafras, which here assumes a curious growth, its branches hanging down somewhat like those of a spruce, and VICTORIA Cc EN THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 19 giving: a fir-like appearance to the tree; on its roots grows Sisyrinchium pulchellum. Fittosporum bicolor, musk and hazel, and pepper trees abound ; and of ferns the gully is full of the usual Dicksonia and Alsophila, with Lomaria procera and pattersoni, Blechnum cartilagineum, Davallia dubia, Asplenium laxum, Aspidium aculeatum, Polypodium billardieri and punctatum, Doodia caudata, and various species of Hymenophyllum. * | Crossing the little creek we pass again for about a mile on to granite. ‘The track, which is here a very good one, gradually ascends, leading for some distance amongst sassafras, waratah, hazel, musk, pepper trees, and fine white-gums. Again we pass on to silurian rock, and after between three and four miles from the gully, halt at an elevation of 3,200ft., by the side of a stream flowing southward. In the afternoon, walking on for some little distance, the character of the country changes: it becomes very boggy, and we pass through a small wood of Leptospermum 50 ft. high and upwards, with long strips of paper- like bark hanging down the stem; on from this the ground rises somewhat sharply, and we meet again with Persoonias, musk, cotton trees, sassafras, pepper trees, and waratahs, and large specimens of Elseocarpus, and then along the final rise we see, for the first time, the conifer Mageia alpina and Prostanthera qwalterz, though the latter is not in flower. Both of these are of interest, as, according to Baron von Mueller this is the lowest elevation (3,400 ft.), at which the conifer has yet been found; whilst this species of Prostanthera is confined to Croajingolong, where it was first found and sent to Baron von Mueller by Mr. Walter. Amongst: other sub-alpine plants are seen Senecio dryadeus, Gaultiera hispida, Lagenophora gunni, Notelea longifolia, Styphelia macret and montana, and Helichrysum thyrsoides. The track rises to a height of 3,700 ft., and passes on to a level piece of ground of considerable extent covered with grass, and presenting a very park-like appearance. Veronica derwentia, species of Senecio and Helichrysum, Lrharta juncea, and the snow-grass (Poa hookeriana) are plentiful. The growth of the latter—z2 ft. in height—is very thick on this, the highest point in the coast range. Of trees there are simply, in this part, the waratah and the silver wattle. The latter is very noticeable as presenting that curious fir-like appearance which has already been noted in the case of the sassafras on the range, but which is still more marked in the case of the wattle. What produces this curious effect it is difficult to imagine ; at the same time it is, perhaps, worth noting that it is only found on the trees high up on the mountains, * Here and in other parts various forms of worms, insects, &c., were collected, and cryptogams which have not, as yet, been identified. Through- out the journey fungi were collected and preserved in alcohol. 20 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. where for considerable lengths of time they are snow-covered, and it may be just possible that it is the weight of the snow which the branches have to bear that, when they are young and flexible, causes them to grow in this manner ; at the same time, if this be the reason, it is curious that the effect is not universal, though this may be due to the different methods of growth of the branches in various kinds of trees and their power of resistance to downward pressure. Close to the top of Goon Murk our botanist found a species of the composite Erichthites, which Baron von Mueller states is new to Victoria, being only known previously from Western Australia. The north side of the range, at least towards the eastern end, presents a great contrast to the south side. There are no deep gorges and almost precipitous hillsides, but the country gently slopes away towards the border between Victoria and New South Wales, and the streams draining it flow quietly along without excavating for themselves deep valleys. From the top of Goon Murk we travel on down the north side. For some time we have waratahs, and musk and hazel and ‘ gebungs,” the latter bearing fruit, which is said to be edible. It is round, perhaps half an inch in diameter, with a smooth yellowish leathery skin when ripe, and a stone inside to which the pulpy, almost slimy, green mesocarp clings persistently. On attempting to eat it you gain a good idea of what boiled leather must be like. Leaving the waratahs and hazel behind, and still gradually descending, we come to a different class of country. It is much more open, with grass and low white-gums. On the bank of a creek we find Sphagnum moss growing, with Zomaria alpina (seen here for the first time), and ZL. fluvzatelis; Dianella abounds, and so does Stylidium, whose red blossoms take the place of the red Dipodium punctatum, which was as constantly seen south of the range as Stylidium now is to the north. Amongst other plants are present —Drymophila cyanocarpa, Beckea gunniana, Veronica gracilis, Mimulus repens, and every- where the little Viola hederacea. After a most interesting day we camp for the night on a little bit of rising ground by the side of a large open flat, enclosed by low hills with woods of stringybark and white-gums (9). Part of the flat is occupied by a bog, many acres in extent, of Sphagnum moss. A stream of clear, deep water, with grassy banks, runs through the flat, on which cattle are grazing, and as the sun sets and a low white mist rises the whole scene calls to mind an English meadow backed by woods and with a clear rivulet wandering lazily across it. However, the ferocious bites of the bull-dog ants, whom we have innocently dispossessed, and as night comes on the howling of a pack of dingoes in the distance, and every now and then the screech of a phalanger as THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 21 it flies from tree to tree, serve to remind us that we are in a land which, though undoubtedly not possessing many advantages belonging to the old country, is yet of much greater interest to us as naturalists. SATURDAY, 12TH JANUARY.—We start early from camp, being anxious to reach Bendoc and camp some little distance on the other side. Our way still lies through forest with moderately- sized gums—-stringybark, white-gums and messmates—and now and then a waratah, but only very few of these. Stylidium and Dianella are flowering in abundance. The country is uninterest- ing, and falls gradually away to the north, making walking very enjoyable and easy. We begin to see signs of civilization—first cattle-yards, then water-races connected with the old diggings, and old diggers’ holes in the yellow-red silurian sandstone of which the country is formed. Some miles on we cross a flat covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, on which cattle are feeding, but which in winter must be simply a bog; then the ground becomes slightly more undulating, with long rolling ridges, until at last we come to a small settlement, with a few bark houses, and then the rough track opens out into a road which winds through the wood and brings us to cleared land, across which we can see the few houses forming the township of Bendoc, and, rising behind this the conical peak of Delegate Hill, lying on the border-line between Victoria and New South Wales. It is a long time since we have seen any civilized human beings, but this morning Bendoc is full of people, as one of its few inhabitants has just died, and the funeral is to take place to-day. The dwellers in the country side have evidently gathered into the township from far and near, and the sight is one which, for its quaintness and simplicity, we shall not easily forget. One old man comes walking up the broad street, whom we at once instinctively put down as the “oldest inhabitant” of the district, and whose general appearance would form a delightful sketch for anyone on the look-out for character studies. Carrying in his hand an old handleless umbrella, which, with his clothes, must have weathered many a Sabbath storm, he wears light tweed trousers, an open evening-dress waistcoat, a short, what had once been black, coat, but which in time of need would now easily serve as a mirror ; on his head an ancient felt hat, reduced by constant battering to an average height of perhaps 414 inches, and to complete his toilet, a brilliant new red handkerchief, tied in a zeg/igé manner, where a collar should have been. To describe the scene is, however, scarcely within the legitimate scope of an article for a field naturalists’ club, but the recollection of the anxious looks cast along the road by which the hearse was expected to arrive, and the sight of the structure when at last it did appear, drawn by two remarkable steeds, of whom one had bo: bo THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. its foal running by its side, and driven by an individual who combined in his own person the professions of architect, builder, and coachman of the curious ‘“ greenhouse ”-on-wheels which served as a hearse, and the design of which revealed the Gothic spirit latent in the architect—the recollection of these will remain with us for long. Nor are we likely to soon forget the quaintness of the scene as the funeral procession, with its long string of men and women on horseback, and an intermingling of a strange variety of vehicles, moved off down the wide street of Bendoc. We seemed to be carried far away from the civilization of the nineteenth century. As to Bendoc itself, it is purely a mining township, the total population of which cannot number much more than sixty or seventy souls in all. In times past the river beds in the neigh- bourhood were worked for alluvial gold, and traces of the old workings are to be seen everywhere. Then came a time of depression, when the school-house and the police station were almost, if not quite, the only inhabited houses. Now the town- ship is livelier again, and promises to make progress. Various mines, as the Eclipse and Morning Star, are being worked in the neighbourhood, and gold obtained, of which the kindness of Mr. Dudley, the hotelkeeper, enabled us to bring away specimens. In the creek behind the hotel Ranunculus aguaticus grows in abundance, and the leaves of the young gums are covered with various species of beetles of the genus Pavopsis. We could not obtain all the stores we wanted in Bendoc, where it was terribly hot, so after having looked around for some time, written and obtained letters, telegraphed, and dined in a civilized manner, we started again at 3 p.m., glad once more to get into the woods. The country here is undulating, with rather fine trees—white-gums, stringybarks, messmates, and a few pepper- mints. Of others, one or two species of Aster, with now and then waratahs, are seen, plenty of Banksia serrata and -australis, and Acacia discolor and linearis. Everynow andthen we come to patches of Leptospermum myrsinoides, with the usual accompaniment of Buprestid and other beetles, and in the woods Stylidium is much the most frequent flower, the white as well as the common red variety being found. Bossicea and two or three Pulteneas are also noticed, and many dwarf grass-trees. The country grows very poor and monotonous, with nothing but low gums, until we reach the river Delegate, on the west side of which lies our camp for the night. The river runs north and south along a broad valley with low-lying hills on either side, and with its sluggish current and the green flats bordering its course forms a strong contrast to the streams flowing to the south ae the mountain ranges through deep valleys. Our tents are pitched on stony ground, and are not by any = SSS 2, ~ x N Aig 900 Fife FE N.C Victrorié THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 23 means comfortable (10). There is no chance of getting away from the ants, as “bull-dogs” and “jumpers” abound everywhere, and it is not cheerful to find three or four “bull-dogs” promenading your rug as you go to lie down, or to wake up feeling something alive and prickly, and to find you have a scorpion for a bed- fellow. Such are our experiences this evening, and we leave the camp in the morning without very much regret. SUNDAY, 13TH JANUARY.—We take the road east to Bonang. Leaving the Delegate, the country improves. The gums, white and stringybark, increase in size ; waratahs appear, growing near to a creek known, from the fact of its having been success- fully worked for gold by Chinamen, as Chinaman’s Creek. The road rises considerably, until the aneroid indicates 3,400 ft.. We are on the side of a hill sloping away so steeply to the north that the road has had to be banked up, and, going round sharp bends, is protected by rails. Where the trees are at all thin, which is but seldom, we can see across the deep gorge beneath to the mountains opposite, and beyond them on to range after range of the hills which lie in the Omeo district. To the left of us, as we face north, is Mount Bowen; whilst in the distance, on the right, we can see Mount Tingiringy. The road descends, sloping along the length of the hill until a little further on we pass on to the crest of the descending hill, and can see the blue mountains away to the north, with the flats of Bonang just beneath us, and to the south the spurs leading up to Mount Goonegerah in the middle distance and Mount Ellery in the background. The hill on which we are has been recently fired, and the track turns sud- denly down its face, passes through a valley rich with waratahs, and cottonwood trees and ferns, and leads down to the River Bonang. On the brow of the hill we cross an outcrop of hornblendic granite, which apparently comes north, from the direction of Mount Ellery. At the river the track joins the one which runs up from Orbost to the township of Bonang, and, crossing the race which supplies the Rising Sun Mine, runs north-east for 144 miles till we reach the large farms accommodation house, which serves also as post-office and store. ‘The station lies in a flat, 2,500 ft. above sea level, of considerable size, which is now quite cleared and covered with green fields. There is nothing else to be seen but this one house, though there are a few others close to the mine, and a few bark huts just where the tramway from the mine crosses the track. All around are the mountains, covered with monotonous gum forests, and, altogether, Bonang is not an inviting place. Close to the river is the beginning of a new track which is now being cut by the surveyors, and which will run almost up to Mount Ellery. Unfortunately for us, as we pass south to Goonegerah, we find the hills very recently fired, which makes it 94 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. not worth while halting in what would doubtless otherwise have been a good district for collecting. From the river the track slightly rises, and then we begin to descend in zigzag curves the steep side of what is known as Little Bill’s Hill. Weare travelling now on granite, and the track, which is a very fair one, has had to be cut out of the hillside. The afternoon becomes very oppressive. There is a thunderstorm in the distance and the clouds are heavy, with a lurid light in the sky behind them, which serves to make the hills, by contrast, look dark and purple, and the deep gorges darker still. ‘To the south the sky is laden with the dense smoke of large bush-fires, and the scene is made still more weird by a sudden storm of wind rushing in a narrow path up the valley, and making the trees bend and creak as it passes along ; one big tree which blocks the path has evidently fallen not many hours ago, and we stand still, watching to see “if any amongst those immedi- ately around us is going to follow its example. The trees on the hill we are descending are still burning, and the fire has even swept up the fern gullies, destroying all the vegetation. It looks almost as weird and unearthly as the “ black country ” at home. We are now once more on the south of the coast range, though at this western end there is by no means the contrast between the northern and southern sides of the mountains which obtains at the east end. We are anxious, if possible, to reach the station at Goonegerah before nightfall, and press on, leaving the horses to follow more slowly. The road leads into a narrow track passing along the valley of the Brodribb as it runs south from the coast range. We cross a creek where the Todea is growing luxuriantly—almost the only green thing we can see. To the right of us bush-fires are burning on the hillsides, the ground we are traversing is all hot and burnt, and to our left Mount Goonegerah, a high- peaked hill, rises. The valley begins to expand, and cross- ing a branch of the Brodribb, the valley of which is filled with large masses of granite, we come out on to open cultivated flats, in the middle of which is Reed’s station. The homestead is well placed, not far from the river, with a fine view of Mount Ellery and the surrounding mountains, and serves as an accommodation house (11). It was nearly dark when we arrived, and we are very glad to have a good meal, and more especially, perhaps, one which we had not cooked for ourselves. We are made very comfortable for the night, and spend an enjoyable evening, smoking in a garden filled with old English flowers. Monpbay, 14TH JANUARY.—We leave Goouessen with the intention of climbing Mount Ellery, and are prepared for some rather stiff work, as there will be no track after we leave the one going south to Orbost. A little distance from the station we cross the Brodribb, and then, after four or five miles of country with nothing of special interest, we strike off to the east into the scrub, THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 25 The land is poor, with small stringybarks. The lesser grass-tree is present ; and, for the first time, we come across a patch of bottle- brush trees (Calistemon) ; they have, however, done flowering, and are in fruit. We have come again into the region of Comesperma ericinum and Goodia lotifolia which abound every- where. Lomatia fraseri is in flower, with the blue Lobelia and Wahlenbergia; but, except these and an occasional Dipodium, there is very little to give colour to the scrub. We soon pass off the granite on to silurian slates, and climb a steep, recently fired ridge where the soil is very thin and walking most uncomfortable. On the top we pause for a little while, as fortunately the trees are thin, to gain some idea, if possible, of the best way to attempt Mount Ellery, which we can see lying almost due east of us, and having settled which ridge to ascend, and stopped to bag a copperhead snake, go down the steep hillside to the B. A. Creek, where, in the shade of the ferns and Pittosporums we halt for lunch. Crossing the creek, we begin to mount the spur, which leads at first slightly to the south of east. The scrub of young gums, Acacias, Pultenzeas, and Goodias is annoying, and walking becomes more tiring as we get higher up, and the ground is thickly covered with ferns and rotten logs and withered vegetation. The trees are stringy and iron barks, and the messmate, and down in the gullies we can see the white-gum. Progress is so difficult that it is six o’clock before we have done more than five miles along the ridge, and we are obliged to camp, where evidently from the marks on the trees the blacks have done before us (12). Previous to lighting a fire, some of us have to clear a space of dead ferns and branches which lie thick upon the ground, whilst others go in search of water; the latter is some distance away, and the getting it occupies nearly two hours, owing to the thickness of the scrub and the abundance of Smilax and Clematis. A dearth of water after such a fatiguing day, and in such hot weather, is somewhat depressing, and hence this spot received the name of Starvation Camp. TUESDAY, 15TH JANUARY.—The horses could go no further, so, leaving them, we start for the mountain, still keeping to the summit of the ridge on which we had been travelling yesterday ; the undergrowth of ferns is very thick, and the fallen logs very numerous, so that our progress is again slow. After rather more than two miles we make a slight descent, where the ridge joins the main peak, and then commence the ascent of the latter. The scrub grows thicker, and Smilax and supple-jack, sword and climbing grass hinder us everywhere. ‘The. vegetation is richer than on the ridge: Eleocarpus, Pittosporum bicolor, waratahs, musk and cottonwood trees, and small blackwoods are plentiful; and there are acres of Lomaria procera, Blechnum, Pteris, and Gleichenia, Now and then we get a little respite when we come 26 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. to a patch of fern trees.; but this is only for a short time, and then comes the climbing over rotten logs and the vain attempt to proceed, with a festoon of Smilax grasping you round the legs and one of Clematis encircling your neck. Reaching the height of 3,000 ft., we find the silurian gives place to a granite formation. As far as distance measured horizontally goes, we have traversed the greater length of the mountain—in fact, we are just under the peak, which we can see above us through the trees, though we have still a height of 1,300 ft. to climb. On the south-west side, at all events, the main mass of Ellery is of silurian slates and sandstones. Just where we pass on to the granite is a belt of silver-wattle trees; fine specimens of stringybark are present, and scrubs of Prostanthera lasianthos. As we mount we come to huge masses of granite, some 5oft. high, weathered quite smooth and covered with lichens. They are thrown about in great confusion, and we have to make our way often on hands and feet through crevices between them. Except for the lyre- bird’s call, everything is perfectly silent, and there is a strange dearth of animal life. The mists are coming on as we get nearer to the top, and at length, after a stiff climb over an enormous pile of granite masses which form the summit of the mountain, we stand by the side of one 75 ft. high, which is perched upon the others, and forms the prominent peak of the mountain, only to find that we are enveloped in a thick mist, and can see nothing whatever but the granite masses around us and the tops of the gum trees on the mountain side below (fig. 1). The cairn which was on the summit of the large block has gone, and only the rotten remnants of a ladder which once led up to it remain as evidence of the surveying party which first climbed the mountain. Since they left very few others have been to the top. Right amongst the rocks on the summit we found Prostanthera walteri in blossom—the same species already seen on Goon Murk—whilst the very highest plant obtained was growing up the side of the large rock, where the aneroid registered 4,225 ft., and was a waratah.* Apparently the snow and cold weather to which it must be exposed make no difference to it. On the summit also &. stuvartiana was in flower, as also a species of Lomatia and Aster. Carefully climbing down from the granite masses, the deep crevices between which do not look inviting, we halt at their base for a rest and a smoke. It has been tiring work, and we have passed no stream, and on a hot day the want of water is not pleasant. Progress down hill, owing to the scrub and logs, is almost as * The range of height within which the waratah grows in Croajingolong is thus from about 300 ft. to 4,300 ft: it grows just as freely on the summits of the highest hills (as Goon Murk) as it does along the river valleys. THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. Di slow as up hill. We take a somewhat different course going back, and are fortunate enough to strike a creek at about a height of 3,000 ft.; along the creek the sassafras is growing. We have got below the mists again, and strike our old track close by where, though now overgrown with scrub and ferns, are evident relics of the camp made by the surveyors when first the mountain was climbed. We have only walked ten miles, but evening comes on as we reach our camp, with clothes considerably less entire than when we started. WEDNESDAY, 16TH JANUARY.—We leave Starvation Camp with little regret, and take the top of the ridge by which we had ascended, for some distance, then, turning more to the south-east, branch off from our first track and descend by a spur more to the west. This leads down to a small creek running up to Mount Ellery ; in fact, it was the head of this creek which we struck in our descent yesterday. Crossing the creek we traverse two ridges, and then descend into the valley of the St. Patrick River. A hurricane has evidently very recently swept up the valley, and the track is covered with fallen timber, principally of white-gum, one large tree of which lies across our path, its leaves still green and fresh. As we pass along a branch falls, just grazing the saddle of one of our pack-horses. We camp by the side of the stream, climbing over the trunk of a large TZvristania /aurina, which overhangs the water. ‘The creek is shut in by a dense growth of Lilypilli, Eleocarpus, musk, hazel, and tree ferns; and we see again the sassafras, which is not often met with in the district. Ferns are abundant, and amongst these we notice Zvichomanes pyxt- diferum, and, for the first time, Aspidium decompositum. On the branches of the Tristania by the stream grows the rare, black, horsehair-like fungus, Mavasmius equicrinis, only once before recorded from Victoria. After searching down by the creek we start up the hill on the opposite side. The scrub is largely made up, as usual, of Acacia discolor and linearts, Goodia lotifolia (the pods of which are popping all around), Bursaria spinosa, Pultenea, and Comesperma ericinum, with star and coral ferns and the common bracken. On the top we come into a dense wood of young gum saplings—stringybark. Here, again, the hurricane seems to have swept through in a narrow path, and the track, which is not much to boast of at the best, is much impeded with fallen timber. The difficulty is, that the trees are so close together that there is scarcely room for the pack-horses to get between them when they have to go into the scrub to get round the uprooted trees. The ridge leads south to the range, which runs westward across the country from the M‘Culloch hills, and after some few miles we join the mining track, and turn east to the St. Patrick River. We are walking along the northern side of the ridge, close to the crest, and have a fine view of the 28 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST, north-western part of the district, looking away over the valleys of the Big River and the Brodribb, with Mount Ellery in the centre, and the coast range far away in the distance, with the high peaks of Goon Murk to the east and Mount Bowen to the west. It is perfectly clear, and the scene, with the deep gorge at our feet, and the hills all shades of purple and blue, with the shadows of the clouds passing slowly across them, is most beautiful. Mount Ellery, especially, has such a lovely purple-blue tint that we almost forgive it for the useless trouble it had given us yesterday. The track, still skirting the ridge, turns slightly to the south and begins to fall. In the scrub are great masses of the beautiful blue berries of Dianella. After descending for two miles we cross the St. Patrick River, and find the relics of an old camp on the east bank, where is a small flat. Here we pitch the tents close by the stream (13). Weare ina basin, surrounded by densely wooded hills. The St. Patrick flows down from Mounts Tanglefoot and Jack in a valley formed by two ranges of hills, which run roughly parallel to one another, and then lead up to Tanglefoot. In the valley, and close to our camp, the waratah flourishes. THURSDAY, 17TH JANUARY.—Early in the morning one of our party, who has been much troubled with an injured hand, leaves, taking one of our horses to travel on ahead to Orbost, and thence as soon as possible to Sale. Crawford sets off to bring back the stores which we had left in a tent where the mining track, by the side of which we are camped, joins Bruce’s. ‘The rest of us make ready for a day’s search in the neighbourhood of the camp. As we set out, however, the rain comes on in torrents, and as the scrub is thick with swordgrass, climbing grass, Clematis, and Smilax, we give up the attempt, and are forced to spend the day in camp. Some distance up the river are falls, which are said by the one party which has seen them to be very fine, but the sight of these we must leave for another trip. There seem to be more birds in the scrub around this part than elsewhere. Amongst others are the king lory, the Gang Gang, the sulphur-crested, and black cockatoos, and Pennant’s parrakeet ; the orange-winged sitella, the bell and coach-whip birds, the black-throated and New Holland honey-eaters, the red-eyebrowed and fire-tailed finch, the blue and long-tailed wrens, fantails, robins, and many others, and at night the wonga pigeon is heard. Fripay, 18TH JANUARY.—We leave camp, cross the St. Patrick, and go back along the mining track. Instead of turning north on our old track towards Mt. Ellery, we continue eastwards, passing along the ridge running from the M‘Culloch Range to the Brodribb. The track leads at first along a hillside, on which the vegetation is, perhaps, more tropical-like in its luxuriance than anywhere else, and the scene is made still more beautiful by the glimpses which we get of the blue peaks of the M‘Culloch hills, THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 29 The trees are principally very large white-gums, Lilypilli, Eleocarpus, with its blue berries, Drymis, Panax sambucifolius, waratahs and blackwood, with Vitis hypoglauca, and long festoons of Smilax and Clematis. The tree ferns are very fine indeed, and the ground thick with Lomarias and Gleichenias. When the Lily- pilli and waratah are in bloom these gullies and hillsides, with their dense luxuriant jungle growth, must present a wonderful blaze of colour. As it is, the white flowers of Stackhousia, Pimelia, Lomatia, and Bursaria, the pink Comesperma and red Dipodium, the blue of large clusters of Dianella berries and Lobelia and Sczevola flowers, and the violet of the fringed lilies serve to relieve the monotony of dull green. The track winds about somewhat, and skirts first the north and then the south side of the ridge, giving us alternately views of Mt. Ellery, backed by the coast ranges, and of the M‘Culloch and lower ranges to the south. The highest point we touch is 1,500 feet, and a steep descent brings us once more down to the river Brodribb, where it runs in a sharp bend round the western end of the ridge we have been traversing all day. We camp on a small flat 450 feet above the sea level, the hills rising directly from the stream in the form of an amphitheatre on the opposite (western) side (14). It may be noted that in the ordinance map the Sardine Creek is wrongly marked as joining the Brodribb just at this point. - In reality it enters half-a-mile higher up, and not just where the main stream takes this sharp bend to flow round the end of the hill ridge of silurian rocks running east and west. SATURDAY, I9TH JANUARY.—We cross the Brodribb, which is here a good-sized stream some 4o ft. wide, and join the track which passes south from Bonang to Orbost, and which we had quitted when we struck east from Goonegerah to Mt. Ellery. The track keeps to the hills, and lies for the most part along silurian strata, save where in two places—one soon after leaving the Brodribb, and another on Mt. Watt—a strip of granite runs across from the east. We soon reach the height of 1,300 ft., and have very fine views, giving us a good idea of the general lay of the country, for we can see the whole district from Mt. Raymond in the south to the coast ranges in the north. The track then passes over Mt. Watt, where we halt for lunch, and then, rising to 1,700 ft., crosses the very top of Mt. Buck. The great idea of the original cutters of the track would seem to have been that of scaling every possible hill, and avoiding every opportunity of gentle gradients, and they have succeeded admirably. However, from Mt. Buck we get a fine view south, with Orbost and the Snowy flats and Lake Curlip on the Brodribb, and away in the distance the sandhills and breakers on the beach at Marlow. The hills have lately been fired, and look desolate in the extreme. In parts not a blade of grass is to be seen. From the foot of Mt. 30 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. Buck the road—for the track widens out as we approach civiliza- tion—passes over gently undulating and most monotonously un- interesting country, until, after a tramp of more than 300 miles on foot through one of the wildest and finest parts of Victoria, we once more find ourselves in Orbost. Here we spend a quiet Sunday, arranging our packages. On Monday evening we are at Lakes’ Entrance, with no worse a mishap than a broken axle, due to the remarkable avidity for deep water- holes displayed by our youthful Jehu, and Tuesday finds us— looking scarcely as reputable, even, as when we started—enjoying a lazy steam along the lakes, and enduring a miserably hot journey into Melbourne. GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE DISTRICT. Western Croajingolong is essentially a mountainous, or, to speak more correctly geologically, a hilly country—that is, the present surface configuration is due, in the main, to the effects of sub- aérial denudation acting upon rock masses of different degrees of hardness. The general lay of the formation, as far as this can be determined from observations along the tracks, has been already described by Mr. Stirling,* and in the main our observations agree with his. The woodcuts appended to his paper serve admirably to illustrate the nature of a general section through the country. As yet, nothing of the nature of detailed observations have been made. The main mass of the district is undoubtedly composed of silurian rock (slates, shales, and sandstones), through which, in the form of knobs or bands of varying length and width, masses of granite have forced their way. Thus the country, enclosed by a series of lines drawn from Camp 1 to Camp 14, then on to where the track crosses the B. A. Creek, then nearly due east to where the Ada joins the Erinundra, and then following south-west again by the track to Camp. 1, is in the main composed of silurian slates and shales, with, in parts, overlying conglomerates, as on the ridge leading up to the M‘Culloch Range. Through this mass of silurian strata granite has forced its way, forming now the peaks of Mounts Ellery and Raymond, the highest points of the M‘Culloch Hills—Mounts Lookout, Tanglefoot, and Jack—and certainly the highest point on this ridge passed over by our track. ‘On either side of the latter mass of granite, especially on the east, lie metamorphic rocks, schists, gneiss, and quartzites. To the north of this district there appear to be two main bands of granite, running south ; the one on the east, from Goon Murk to the Ada River ; the one on the west, from Bonang to the junction of the * «Proceedings of Royal Society of Victoria,” 1888. THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 31 Brodribb and the B. A. Creek. Between them lies, probably, a mass of silurian rock ; certainly, the granite on Mount Ellery is not continuous, on the surface, with the band to the east or west of it. North of the coast range again lies silurian rock—sandstones to the east, between Goon Murk and Bendoc ; slates to the west, on the Bonang side. Mr. Stirling has described a long band of granite stretching from north to south along the Cann River. Speaking generally, we may regard the district of West Croajin- golong as composed, in the main, of lower and upper silurian strata—slates, shales, sandstones, more rarely conglomerates, and at times metamorphosed by contact with irruptive rocks. The latter are in the form of (1) continuous bands of granite or (2) a series of knobs of granite, both running along lines lying roughly north and south. It is interesting to note that, in the former case, they are traversed along their length by river valleys. Thus, on the west, the course of the Brodribb lies along a belt of granite in its northern, and again in its southern part, between Camp 14 (shown on the map) and its junction with the Rocky River. Again, the Erinundra traverses the whole length of the belt of granite from Mount Goon Murk to the south of the Ada, and the still longer belt away to the east is traversed by nearly the whole length of the Cann River. On the other hand, where we find isolated knobs of granite, as down the centre of the district in Mount Ellery or on the summit of Goon Murk or Mounts Watt and Raymond, there the rock masses stand out, forming prominent peaks and ridges. The weathering of the granite on Mount Ellery is most striking. It has become formed on the surface into a great accumulation of huge boulders from 2oft. to 75 ft. in height, which lie piled up on one another in indescribable confusion. One huge mass, the egg shape of which gave to the mountain the native name of “ Goonegerah,” stands out high above the dense forest, which, save in this instance alone, clothes to their summits the long ridges and many peaks of this wild district. Denudation has finally resulted in the formation of two main watersheds in West Croajingolong. Of these, the first is known as the Coast Range, and runs roughly east and west, from Mount Bowen, through Goon Murk, to Mount Tennyson ; the second runs roughly north and south, from the Coast Range in the north, through Mount Ellery, its culminating point, then on to the M‘Culloch Hills, with Mounts Tanglefoot, Jack, and Lookout, and then south to Mount Raymond. From the M‘Culloch Range a narrow ridge runs west to the Brodribb, to a spot where the river has apparently cut a narrow gorge across it, and then joins a range passing south to Mounts Watt and Buck. These watersheds divide the west portion of the county into three main parts. 32 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. (1.) One lying to north of the Coast Range. This is drained by tributaries such as the Bonang and Delegate rivers, flowing away north to join the Snowy. (2.) An eastern portion, in which the rivers flow mainly south. There are two chief streams—the Cann, on the east ; the Bemm with its tributaries, the Erinundra, Ada, Black Watch, Goolengook, and Mackenzie, on the west. In addition there are lesser streams, such as the Yeerung River, and the Cabbage Tree Creek, which turns west, round the base of Mount Raymond, to join the Brodribb. (3.) A western portion drained by the eastern tributaries of the Snowy, and again divided into a northern and southern part by the ridge running across from the M‘Culloch Hills to the Sardine Creek. The principal stream is the Brodribb. North of the ridge this receives the B. A. Creek and St. Patrick River, and south of the ridge it is joined by the Rich and Rocky rivers, and close to the sea by the Cabbage Tree Creek as before said. The whole country inland from the coast district is extremely well watered, the streams running in deep and often very narrow gorges, which only at intervals widen out into broad valleys, whilst flats of any size are of rare occurrence. North of the Coast Range, on the east side, the country is much more open, the rivers not running in such deep valleys, and the ground gently rising and falling. This difference is ascribed by Mr. Stirling to the difference in the rainfall on the north and south sides of the range. It may, perhaps, be due in part to this, but the reason is more probably to be found, in the main, in the difference in geological formations. Those around Bendoc are of a yellew-red silurian sandstone, without the hard slates which characterize the formations to the south of the range. These sandstones have probably allowed of more equal denudation, and this will account for the gradual falling away of the country from Goon Murk down to Bendoc. On the eastern side, again, around Bonang, the denudation has been more unequal, and the rivers have hollowed out deep valleys: this is associated with the presence of the harder slates, through which, as near Bonang, runs a band of irruptive granite. ZOOLOGY. Of the higher forms of life there was, as we were led to believe before leaving Orbost, a remarkable dearth. Kangaroos,wombats, platypus, bandicoots, phalangers, and opossums were the only mammals seen during the whole journey, and these, save the phalangers, were exceedingly few in number, and we went whole days without catching sight of one. This is, of course, partly THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 30 to be accounted for by the density of the scrub, into which, in most parts, it was simply useless to penetrate, as progress would be, perhaps, at the rate of a few yards per minute. At night packs of. dingoes were to be heard howling in the distance, but none came close to the camp. Various forms of lizards were captured, the large lace lizard being abundant. Snakes were to be found in plenty, the copperhead (Hoplo- cephalus superbus) being the most frequent. The tiger snake (H. curtus) was captured, and also the black snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus). The insects collected were very numerous, but a list of them cannot as yet be given. Perhaps as far as insect life is concerned the most noticeable feature is the vast number of ant-hills in every part. Over large areas the mounds of the “ jumper” ants are so thick as to call to mind the ‘‘mole-hills” at home. A hard search was made for Perzpatus, but though this has recently been found for the second time in Victoria, and the locality was an eminently likely one, the search was unsuccessful. Amongst molluscs, a species of Bulimus is abundant in certain parts, and various forms of chetopod and planarian worms were found : amongst the former, the largest—a pericheete worm—measures 6 in. to 8 in. in length and 3 in. in diameter. Of birds, the following list (kindly supplied to us by Mr. C. Frost) gives the names of those noted. The density of the scrub again interfered very much with the procuring of specimens of birds as of mammals :— Astur novee-hollandize Malurus longicaudus Alcyone azurea Stipiturus malachurus Artamus sordidus Hylacola pyrrhopygia Pardalotus quadragintus Sericornis frontalis Strepera graculina Acanthiza pusilla Gymnorhina leuconota Dacelo gigas 34 tibicen Ninox boobook Grallina picata Anthus australis Graculus melanops Cincloranthus rufescens Collyriocincla harmonica Estrelda bella Falcunculus frontalis » temporalis Rhipidura albescalba Ptilonorhynchus holosericeus p rufifrons Meliornis novee-hollandize Gerygone fusca Anthochcera carunculata Petrceca multicolor Philemon corniculatus »» Pheenicea Melithreptus gularis Dymodes brunneopygia Acanthorhyncus tenuirostris Eopsaltria australis Manorhina melanophrys Menura victorize Zosterops ccerulescens Psophodes crepitans Climacteris scandens Malurus cyaneus || Cacomantis flabelliformis 3 34 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. Sittella chrysoptera Leucoscarcia picata. Plictolophus galeritus Phaps chalcoptera Callocephalon galeatum Nycticorax caledonicus Aprosmictus scapulatus Turnix varius. Platycercus pennantil Borany. Exclusive of introduced forms and lower cryptogams, the total number of species collected was over 300. The great majority are the common forms met with on the Dandenong Ranges, in Gippsland, and elsewhere, and the list which follows only contains the names of the rarer and more interesting forms. The most striking features in the flora are perhaps the occur- rence of the cabbage tree palm (Livistona australis), and of the waratah (Z'elopea oreades). The existence of this latter species, peculiar to Victoria, was first of all discovered by Baron von Mueller, during his journeying through the Genoa district in Kast Croajingolong. As first described by Mr. Stirling, it grows toa still greater height in the western part of the country, forming a tree which may reach the height of 50 ft. The same fact was noticed by our party, the tree being exceedingly plentiful, and growing with equal profusion and strength in the deepest valleys and on the tops of the highest hills, as Mounts Goon Murk and Ellery. The lithograph which accompanies this article gives put a poor idea of the tree, but it is the first time it has been figured ; there is the usual difficulty of the density of the surrounding vegetation, which hinders a good view being obtained, and to get this rough sketch it was necessary: to clear away, with considerable work, the trees around. Another point of interest is the existence of large examples of the graceful plant, Hwmea elegans, which, in full bloom, we found growing to a height of 20 ft. and upwards. ‘These, in black and white illustrations, such as the one accompanying this article, look rather like white funeral plumes, but in reality the delicate cream- coloured heads tinged with a shade of salmon-pink and darker streaks of umber, are beautiful objects when seen standing out in front of a dense background of ferns, waratahs, and Acacias. Another point of interest is the existence of a species of Erechthites (£. mixta) found on Goon Murk, and new to Victoria, whilst the Nageia alpina, found by the party at an elevation of some 3,000 feet, is the lowest habitat yet recorded for this, which is, strictly speaking, an alpine conifer. Of other forms perhaps the most interesting is the Prostanthera waltert, a species peculiar to this part of Croajingolong, and only seen on the tops of two of the highest peaks—Mounts Ellery and Goon Murk. On the latter is a great growth also of the snow grass (Poa hookeriana). In both THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 3D places the. curious spruce-like growth of the waratah, sassafras, and silver wattle, already referred to, was noted. With regard to negative features, perhaps the most striking is the absence, in this western part, of Acacia verticillata and A. juniperina (the latter is recorded by Mr. Stirling from further east, on the Cann River), and of beech trees, whilst the blackwoods (A. melanoxylon) are comparatively rare, and, when they do occur, are but of small size. Amongst ferns there is a noticeable absence of Lomuaria capensis (only once seen), whereas it is elsewhere the commonest of mountain-stream ferns. In his paper read before the Royal Society, Mr. Stirling has divided the area under discussion into four separate regions, each containing a more or less distinct series of forms. The regions named by him are—(r) the coastal, (2) the inland, (3) the ridges, (4) the sub-alpine. The coastal region certainly here, as elsewhere, may be regarded as distinct from the rest of the country. At the same time the line bounding it inland can be but vaguely drawn, and it is worth while drawing attention again to the curious little “outlier,” as it were, of the inland vegetation found in a little sheltered spot near Lakes’ Entrance, and within a stone’s-throw of the sea. Perhaps this is a relic of the vegetation when what is now the coastal region was inland—when the land stretched further to the south than now it does. ‘The difficulty is greater when we come to deal with the inland part of the country. Mr. Stirling recognizes two regions between the coastal and the more open table-lands north of the Coast Range, and to which he applies the name of “sub-alpine.” Our observations lead to the conclusion that the lists of plants which he gives as characteristic respectively of these two regions are by no means peculiar to either of the two—in fact nearly, if not quite, all of them were found by ourselves growing with equal profusion either in the gullies and river flats or on the ridges, and we find that not more than three regions can be distinguished in the district, viz.— (1) coastal, (2) inland, (3) sub-alpine. (1.) Lhe Coastal.—This extends from the seashore to, perhaps, a distance of some five or six miles inland, and is distinguished by the presence of the following forms. This list includes only forms which do not occur in other parts, and which may hence be regarded as distinctive of this region :—Leptospermum leavi- gatum, Styphelia richet, Acacia longifolia, variety Sophora. A. suaveolens, Banksia antegrifolia, Calocephalus brownii, Aster axillaris, Salicornia australis, Cakile maritima, Cuscuta ars- tralis, Mesembryanthemum australe, MW. cequilaterale, distichilis maritima, Atriplex cinerewm, Chenopodium murale, Spinefex lursutus, Stipa teretifolia, Tetragona implexicoma. 36 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. (2.) Lhe Inland.—This extends from some five or, six miles distance from the coast up to the Coast Range, and includes all within this district save, as far as is yet known, the top of the peak of Mount Ellery, and, perhaps, when examined, it will be found to include also the top of the peaks of Mounts Jack, Lookout, and Tanglefoot. This district is characterized (1) by the presence of a great number of forms, some of which are mentioned below, and (2) by the absence of certain forms characteristic of the third region. Some of the principal forms present as these :—TZelopea oreades, Aster argophyllus, Atheros- perma moschatum, Eucalypts such as #. amygdalina, globulus, sieberiana, &c., Prostanthera lasiantha, Zugema smith, Drymis aromatica, Correa lawerenciana, Goodia lotifolia, Smilax australis, Clematis aristata, various Helichrysa, Acacias, as A. discolor and dealbata ; Persoonias, Panax sambucifolius, Pultenea juniperina, Senecio bedfordu, Lomatia longifolia, Bursaria spinosa, Pittos- porum undulatwm and bicolor, T'ristania laurina, Comesperma erccinum, Wahlenbergia gracilis, Scevola hispida, Dipodium punctatum, and such ferns as Lomaria procera, Blechnum cartulagineum, Davallia dubia, Doodia caudata and Gleichenia curcinata and flabellata. The vegetation, in fact, is much the same as that of the Dandenong Ranges and Gippsland, with such forms, in addition, as the Waratah and Lilypilli. (3.) The Swb-alpine.—This comprises the high land at the summit and to the north at the Coast Range, between Mount Goon Murk and Bendoc, together with the summit of Mount Ellery. This, in addition to the presence of such forms as the Waratah, the Eucalypts and Acacias, &c., characteristic of the inland region, is distinct from the latter in the presence of the following forms :—Nageix alpina, Prostanthera walteri, Scleran- thus biflorus, Aster alpigena, Oxylobium procumbens, O. alpestre, Poa hookeriana and Styp helia macrer. The following is a list of a few of the rarer plants collected in flower or fruit :— *Aster stellulatus, vay. querci- | *Drymophila cyanocarpa. folius. Daviesia corymbosa, vav. *Aster alpigena. mimosoides. * Aster myrsinoides, var. Dampilera stricta Acacia penninervis, var. Davallia dicksonioides. Acacia diffusa. Eucalyptus botryoides. *Bossieea buxifolia. Eucalyptus sieberiana. * Beckea Gunniana. Eucalyptus globulus. Choretrum lateriflorum. Erecthites mixta (ew for Vie- *Comesperma retusum. toria). Those marked * are well worthy of artificial cultivation. THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 37 Polypodium scandens. *Panax sambucifolius (¢yfe). Pomax umbellata. Pultenzea juniperina. *Pultenzea stricta. *Prostanthera walteri. Eleocarpus cyaneus. *Eleocarpus holopetalus. Echinopogon ovatus. *Gaultheria hispida. Helichrysum leucopsidium. * Helichrysum thryrsoides. Helichrysum alatum, var. * Helichrysum cuneifolium. Humea elegans (20 /#. high) Plagianthus pulchellus, var. Poa hookeriana. Persoonia linearis. Hierochloa rariflora. Haloragis micrantha. Haloragis teucroides. Hibbertia billardieri. Hibbertia obtusifolia. Hydrocotyle tripartita. *Geranium pilosum. Juncus prismatocarpus. Kennedya rubicunda. Kunzea peduncularis. Lomaria alpina. Lagenophora gunni Leptospermum, sf. (60 77. high). Leptorrhynchus nitidulus Lomatia longifolia. Marianthus procumbens. Myriophyllum pedunculatum. Nageia alpina. Noteleea longifolia. Livistona australis. Persoonia chamepuce. Potamogeton natans. Pteris umbrosa. Scirpus crassiuscula. Scirpus fluitans. Senecio dryadeus. *Senecio velleioides. Sisyrynchium pulchellum. *Styphelia Macrei, lanceolata. Styphelia montana. Styphelia, sf. Scheenus axillaris. Scleranthus biflorus. *Sceevola hispida. Sarcopetalum Harveyanum. *Trachymene billardieri, var. Tristania laurina. *Telopea oreades (50 ft. high). *Tetratheca, sf. *Tylophora barbata. *Oxylobium procumbens. *Oxylobium alpestre. *Oxylobium ellipticum, var. longifolium. *Panax sambucifolius, var. angustifolius. *Restio tetraphyllus. Restio gracilis. Uncinia tenella. Vitis hypoglauca. Vitis baudiniana. Xanthosia pilosa. DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The map is reduced from the one issued by the Lands Depart- ment, though on the latter only the course of some of the large streams and the direction of certain tracks are indicated, with the position of some of some of the principal peaks. We are indebted to Mr. Stirling for his kindness in forwarding to us a copy of his map, on which the principal ranges of hills were laid down, which was of much use to us during the journey. On the map the track taken by the party is marked in red, and the course of the rivers 38 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. and hill ranges indicated as seen during the trip, and as mapped out in the main by Mr. Stirling. Figure 1 represents a view of the peak of Mount Ellery, and is copied from a photograph by Mr. Walter. We are indebted to R. L. J. Ellery, Esq., F.R.S., for the loan of the photograph. Figure 2 represents a young cabbage tree palm, which has not yet grown above the tops of the surrounding trees. Figure 3 represents a group of full-grown palms, growing by the side of Cabbage Tree Creek. Figure 4 represents a group of Humea elegans, some of which attain the height of from 15 to 20 feet. They are growing in a deep gorge at ‘the base of the Coast Range, close to Goon Murk. Figure 5 represents a waratah ( Ze/opea oreades ), growing at the head of a gully on Mount Ellery. Figs. 2, 3, 4, and 5 are from sketches by W. B. Spencer. DESCRIPTION OF A NEW GOMPHOLOBIUM FROM SOUTH-WESTERN AUSTRALIA, with NOorEs on OTHER SPECIES OF THAT GENUS. By Baron von MuEtter, K.C.M.G., M. & Px.D., F.R.S. &e. GoMPHOLOBIUM EATONLE. Branchlets beset with very short grey hairlets; leaves sraall, sessile ; stipules, none ; leaflets three, sessile, revolute along the margin, thus linear-cylindric, recurved-pointed outside somewhat rugulous and from minute sharp elevations rough ; flowers axillary, solitary ; their stalks short, glabrous, bearing “early deciduous blunt bracts at the base and very small acute bracteoles at or near the middle; calyx glabrous outside ; its lobes semilanceolar, only about as long as the tube, the upper two slightly shorter and somewhat oblique, all partially beset with minute hairlets inside ; upper petal renate-orbicular ; lateral petals semihastate-elliptic ; lower petals almost semiorbicular-ovate, black-purplish, the others red-purplish, all glabrous and with a conspicuous stalklike narrow base; anthers ellipsoid, quite pale; style glabrous, flattened ; stigma minute, ovulary glabrous ; ovules few. Near the eastern sources of Swan- River ; Miss Martha Eaton. (. Baxtert, to which our new plant is nearest allied, differs from it in the development of conspicuous stipules, in generally more slender leaflets, in more deeply cleft calyces with a thin vestiture also outside and with somewhat sticky lobes much thickened along their margin, in petals of seemingly lighter colour with always shorter stalklike base, in a capillary-thin style and in the ovulary being outside beset with hairlets. As regards fruit THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 39 these two plants may also be different, but those of G. Hatonie are as yet unknown. G@. Baxteri flowers already, when only a few inches high, then being even of erect growth. Maxwell found it also at Cape Arid, but it has not been refound at K. G. S., so that Baxter must have gathered his plant farther eastwardly. As many as nine flowers may be noticed at and near the summit of a branchlet; the calyces are never quite glabrous nor sessile. G. amplexicaule and G'. ovatuwm are not specifically distinct ; the former is the best name of the two. Lake Muir, Porongorup and Geographe-Bay (F. v. M.) Cape Leeuwin (Mrs. M‘Hard), Bremer-River (Webb). Semi-herbaceous ; leaves occasionally to two inches long; upper petal to nearly one-inch broad; seeds ellipsoid, pale-grey. On Stirling-Range I gathered a variety with linear-lanceolar leaves. G. obcordatum, found at Boxvale by Miss Julia Wells, at Lake Brown by Mr. E. Merrall. Leaflets usually cuneate and retuse, but never really abcordate ; hence the specific name might be changed into G. 7'wrezaninowi? ; stalklets occasionally very much © shortened. G. marginatum is sometimes fruit-bearing already at a finger’s length. Said to be poisonous. Geographe-Bay and Blackwood- River (F. v. M.), Bremer-River (Webb), eastern sources of Swan-River (Miss Eaton), Pallinup-River (Miss Cronin), between Esperance-Bay and Fraser’s Range (Dempster). G. aristatwm, Serpentine River (F. v. M.) G. tomentosum, Upper Greenough- and Irvine-River, also towards Shark’s Bay and at Geographe-Bay (F. v. M.), Israelite- Bay (Miss Brooks), Drummond’s collection 202. The exact relation of G. capitatum, G. Preissit, and even G. burtonioides to G. tomentoswm requires yet to be better ascertained, I being sceptic about their specific validity. G. viscidulum, near Stirling’s Range (Hon. J. Forrest), near Fraser-Range (Dempster). Occasionally somewhat beset with hairlets ; leaflets always repressed to the carinular line; fruit oblique-globular, hardly of quarter-inch measurement. G. Shuttleworthit, Preston- Collie- and Blackwood-River (F. v- M.), Irvine-River (Mrs. Pries), near Mount Churchman (Young) Flowers occasionally solitary. Maxwell collected on the Gordon- River a variety with elongated flower-stalklets. A closely allied plant, perhaps conspecific, was noticed by the writer on Mount Blackwood, remarkable for having the leaves recurved at the upper end ; the fruit of this always broader than long. Gr. venustum attains a height of 3 feet at Stirling-Range (I. v. M.); occurs also on the Bremer-River (Webb), at Cape Leeuwin 40 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. (Mrs. M‘Hard). Lower portion of the funicle brown, upper dark and narrower ; seeds ellipsoid, grey outside. G. Knightianwm, Porongorup and Stirling’s Range (F. v. M.), Cape Leeuwin (Mrs. M‘Hard), Mount Ridley and Russell-Range (Dempster), Israelite-Bay (Miss Brooks), sources of Swan-River (Miss Sewell). Flowering already at a height of three inches, though attaining to three feet. G. polymorphum extends northward to the Greenough-River (C. Gray); found by the writer also on the Warren-River and Stirling-Range. Two leading varieties may be distinguished—(1) the typical, with floxuous or even twining stem and branches, generally somewhat lengthened leaf-stalks, often upwards dilated and occasionally there indented leaflets and mostly purple petals ; (2) the variety best represented by G. tenwe of Lindley, with rather straight stem and branches, generally shortened leaf-stalks, very narrow leaflets and often yellow petals. (The tendency of twining is also very uncertain in Cheiranthera linearis). Occa- sionally some leaflets occur quite of a cordate-deltoid form ; fruit always considerably longer than broad, its pericarp less firm and outside less dark than in most other species ; ovules occasion- ally reduced to nine ; seed outside pale or dark brown, but never black, as in some species of the allied genus Burtonia. G. pedunculare (Loddiges), Hume-River (M‘Kibbon), Dele- gate-River (Merrall), Genoa (Baeuerlen), Upper Ovens-River (T. C. Martin), Tumut (J. R. Garland). G. latifolium, Latrobe-River (Howitt), Snowy-River (Grove), Ulladulla (Baeuerlen). Stalklets in some specimens hardly as long as the calyx. G. grandiflorum, South to Ulladulla (Baeuerlen). The leaflets may occur in some individual plants quite broadly-linear and blunt. G. minus, Barwon-River (J. Adcock). Branches not rarely almost glabrous from the commencement ; fruit considerably longer than broad. Mr. Baeuerlen gathered on the sources of the Clyde, at 3,500 feet elevation, a plant not distinguishable, except in elongated pedicels. G. uncimatum is often procumbent ; branches slightly verrucular- rough ; the lower petals quite dark-coloured towards the upper end. The plant recorded from Paramatta is the following species. G. glabratum, Lower Clyde (Baeuerlen). Branches slightly verrucular-rough ; fruit obliquely ovate, sphaerical. G. pinnatum, Clarence- and Richmond-River (Chandler). a j President: AC SEs. Wi CAS . 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The numbers forwarded post free to any address on receipt of remittance (postal- notes preferred). = Copies of the Annual Report and List of Members for 1886-87, with Rules, etc., can be eprned on application to the Hon. Sec. : “ A. COLES, oe . paxtoermist and Survier, 220 ELIZABETH ST., MELBOURNE. Birds, Animals, etc., Stuffed and skilfully Mounted. — bird and Animal Skins, Eggs, Shells, Aboriginal Weapons, etc., always on hand. pa Furs, Muffs, and Rugs for Sale, Repaired, or Made to Order. Lessons given in ‘laxidermy. Has the Largest Sale of any | hee St & Ra Sole Agents for Wictoria: ADOLPH JOSKE, BEST & GO., 16 Little Collms Street Hast. FELTON, GRIMWADE &C0., Gholesale Arng Merchants, — MANUFACTURING CHEMISTS, — IMPORTERS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION OF MICROSCOPES, MIGROSCOPIGAL ACCESSORIES, GALVANIG BATTERIES, GHEMIGAL AND SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS, &c., &c. SUPERIOR STUDENTS) MICROSCOPES. BECK’S “STAR” MONOCULAR MICROSCOPE, with rack and pinion coarse adjust- ment, iris diaphragm, double mirror, fine adjustment by screw, r eye-piece, tin and Yin. | objective, in case, 44 12s. 6d, ie BECK’S “ECONOMIC” MICROSCOPES, from 47 6s. to £11 11s. BECK’S ‘‘PORPULAR” MICROSCOPES, from £12 5s. to 427 5s. BECK’S ‘“‘NATIONAL” MICROSCOPES, from £12 5s. to £38 ros. Particulars of various other Microscopes, by best English and Foreign Makers, may be had on application. MELBOURNE: 31 & 33 FLINDERS LANE WEST. = THE JOURNAL AND MAGAZINE s Blataliate — Olub of — x RIDA IIIB ION OOD DIINO PINRO IRIAN PRL RII : he records I I I ID I II CON TSN Ts. THE FIELD NATURALISTS’ CLUB OF VICTORIA THE ANNUAL CONVERSAZIONE i _DEScRIPTIoN OF ‘SOME ate AUSTRALIAN Prants. By BARON von MUELLER, K.C.M.G., M. AND PH. D., F.R.S..... I EVIEW—GEOLOGY or TASMANIA ... “«< PRICE SIXPENCE. Agents for eee: DULAU & cO., 37 Soho Square, London, ies Melbourne : : WALKER, MAY & CO., PRINTERS, 9 MACKILLOP STREET. 1889. sat) A J. Et A Tide (Twenty Years with PAUL THOMAS), IMPORTER AND MANUFACTURER | GF FIRST-CLASS BOOTS ann SHOES, Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Boots and Shoes made to Order. CASH PRICES. A eee eee A SPECIALITY in Ladies’ SENSIBLE Boots ane Shoes— __ Low. Heels and BROAD TOES. New Shipments by every Mail, direct from the Manufacturers. 67 SW ANSTON STREET (Between Flinders Lane and Collins Street, MELBOURNE. 4 SS ere a a - hee Pe oe THE Mictorian Waturalist. Vou. VI.—No. 3. JULY, 1889. No. 67. THE FIELD NATURALISTS’ CLUB OF VICTORIA. THE monthly meeting of the Club was held at the Royal Society’s Hall on Monday evening, 8th April, 1889. Professor W. Baldwin Spencer, B.A., vice-president, occupied the chair, and about 40 members and visitors were present. A letter was read from the Lands Department, stating that, in response to the Club’s request, about 8,500 acres had been added to the forest reserve in the parishes of Jirrah and Tabbara (Cab- bage Tree Creek district). A letter was read from the hon. secretary of the sub-committee of the Field Naturalists’ Section of the Royai Society of South Australia on the protection of the native fauna and flora, with reference to the great destruction of young kangaroos for the sake of their skins, which are perfectly useless for commercial purposes if under 1 lb. in weight. A copy of a letter from a leading tanner in the United States was enclosed, and the committee advocated the protection of kangaroos to a certain extent. The matter was postponed until the next meeting, in order to make further in- quiries. The hon. librarian reported the receipt of the following dona- tions to the library :—“ Census of the Molluscan Fauna of Aus- tralia,” &c., and “ Plants of the Lake Eyre Basin,” &c., by Pro- fessor R. Tate, F.G.S., from the author ; “ Australian Butterflies,” by Mr. A. Sidney Olliff, F.L.S., from the Natural History Associa- tion of New South Wales; ‘“ Proceedings of Linnean Society of New South Wales,” vol. ili., second series, part 4, from the Society ; “ Journal of Pharmacy,” March, 1889, from the Society. The hon. secretary reported that the excursion to Williamstown Back Beach had been well attended, butthat the results, partly owing to the state of the tide,had not been particularly noteworthy. On a ballot being taken, Mrs. J. F. Irvine, Messrs. Walter D. Davies, Jas. Tait, and H. W. Tisdall were duly elected members of the Club. PAPERS READ. 1. By Mr. JD. Best, entitled “A Holiday Trip to North Mirboo.” ‘This was an interesting description of two or three days’ collecting in the North Mirboo district, which, on the whole, he considers a good district for naturalists. He obtained several good species of coleoptera and phasmide. He referred 4 42 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. to the wanton destruction of birds, ferns, trees, &c., everywhere observable, which created some little discussion, and a resolution was carried calling the attention of the Police Department to the non-enforcement of the Game Act in the country districts. 2. By Mr. F. G. A. Barnard, entitled “ Notes on the Victorian Butterflies.” The author briefly referred to the various species of butterflies recorded for Victoria, giving their classification and important characteristics. He mentioned that about 80 species had been taken in the colony, but the greater number were confined to the higher parts of the country, while only about 20 were common near Melbourne. He exhibited about 25 species in illustration of his remarks. The following were the principal exhibits of the evening. By Mr. D. Best.—Coleoptera, phasmidee, &c., from Mirboo, in illus- tration of his paper. By Mr. F. G. A. Barnard.—Victorian butterflies, in illustration of his paper. By Mr. C. French, F.L,S. —Rare Victorian beetles, from the Wimmera district. By Mr. C. French, jun.—Eggs of Blue-faced Honey-eater, from New South Wales, Peaceful Dove, from Victoria, Strong-billed Honey- eater, Black-capped Honey-eater, Sombre-coloured Sericornis, and Owlet Nightjar, from Tasmania. By Mr. T. S. Hall.— Pericosmus, from Cheltenham. By Mr. G. Lyell.—Butterflies, Xentca limbarra, X. Kershawi, and Heteronympha Banksiz, from Dandenong Ranges. By Baron F. von Mueller, K.C.M.G.— Rare orchid, Pogonia flabelliformis (Lindley), from North-west Australia. By Mr. J. Searle—Orchid, £viochilus autumnals, in flower, grown by exhibitor. After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. The monthly meeting of the Club was held at the Royal Society’s Hall on Monday evening, 13th May, 1889. The president, Mr. A. H. S. Lucas, M.A., B.Sc., occupied the chair, and about sixty members and visitors were present. The hon. librarian reported the receipt of the following donations to the library :—“ Quarterly Mining Reports, December, 1888,” from the Mining Department; ‘ Fourth Supplement to Census of Australian Plants,” by Baron von Mueller, K.C.M.G., from the Government Botanist ; ‘‘ Proceedings of Royal Society of Queensland,” vol. vi., part 1, from the Society ; “The Gastro- pods of the Older Tertiary of Australia,” part 2; and “ Census of Fauna of the Older Tertiary of Australia,” by Prof. R. Tate, F.G.S., from the author; “ ‘The Kangaroo, Commercially and Scientifically Treated,” by Mr. S. Kennon, from the author ; “ Journal of Pharmacy,” April, 1889; and “ Nature,” vols. 1. to xxvi., from Mr. J. Smith, to whom a special vote of thanks was accorded, on the motion of Messrs. Coghill and French, F.L.S. The hon. secretary reported that a party of the members had THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 43 paid a visit to the Zoological Gardens, Royal Park, where, under the guidance of Mr. D. Le Souéf, assistant director, they had spent a very interesting afternoon. On a ballot being taken, Miss S. W. Cochrane, Mr. G. D. Carter, M.L.A., Messrs. Harold Carter, R. E. Falls, Jno. Shepherd, and W. G. Turner were duly elected members of the Club. Papers for future meetings were promised by Mr. C. French, F.L.S., ‘‘On the Geographical Distribution of the Australian Buprestidz,” and Mr. P. H. Anderson, ‘“‘ Notes and Experiments on Common Insects.” The letters received from the sub-committee of the Field Naturalists’ Section of the Royal Society of South Australia, on the question of the protection of kangaroos, were then read, and created considerable discussion. Mr. S. Kennon, a visitor, at the request of the chairman, made some very interesting remarks on the subject, principally from a commercial point of view, and exhibited samples of leather made from the skins of various native animals, in order to show the great value of the kangaroo hide. Messrs. Le Souéf, Halley, H. Kennon, Coghill, Gatliff, and others, spoke on the question, and it was resolved, on the motion of Messrs. Lucas and Coghill—‘‘ That the Club take no steps in the matter of the protection of kangaroos, but that further efforts be made with reference to the reservation of Wilson’s Promontory, using its advantages as a reserve for the protection of kangaroos, &c., as a leading feature.” PAPERS READ. 1. By Mr. C. French, jun., entitled “Notes of a Collecting Trip to the Swan Hill District.” The author gave an interesting account of a few days spent in the vicinity of Benjeroop, giving some notes on the principal birds and plants which came under his notice. 2. By Mr. T. G. Sloane, entitled ‘“ Contributions towards a Local List of the Coleoptera,” found at Mulwala, Murray River, N.S.W. This, after a short introduction, consisted almost entirely of a list of the species, and was taken as read, and ordered to be printed. The hon. secretary read a note from Mr. T. G. Sloane, stating that he was anxious to get Melbourne specimens of the genera Promecoderus, Larticus, and allied genera of the family Carabide, for comparison with those of his district, and offering to return them, or send other species in exchange. Owing to the proximity of the annual conversazione, the principal exhibits of the evening were :—By Mr. P. H. Anderson, a young black snake (alive), and by Mr. H. Kennon, a bat ( Aolossus Australis) alive. After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 44 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. The monthly meeting of the Club was held at the Royal Society’s Hall on Monday evening, toth June, 1889. The Rey. J. J. Halley was voted to the chair, and about fifty members and visitors were present. A letter was read from the Field Naturalists’ Section of the Royal Society of South Australia, stating that the protection of kangaroos and opossums for a limited period during each year had been promised by the Government of that colony. The hon. librarian reported the receipt of the following donations to the library :—‘‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales,” vol. xxii., part 2, from the Society ; ‘ Pro- ceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,” second series, vol. iv., part 1, from the Society ; “ Journal of New York Microscopical Society,” vol. v., part 2, from the Society ; “ Fifth Annual Report for 1887-8 of the Field Naturalists’ Section of the Royal Society of South Australia,” from the Section ; “Annual Report, 1889, Bendigo Science Society,” from the Society ; and “Journal of Pharmacy,” May, 1889. The hon. secretary read a report by Mr. T. S. Hall, M.A., of the Club excursion to Mornington on Friday, 24th May (Queen’s Birthday), when a very enjoyable and interesting day was spent at the oligocene beds in the vicinity of Balcombe’s Bay. The beds consist of a stiff blue clay, and are full of fossils, many of which, however, are very delicate, and require special treatment. Among the principal fossils obtained were specimens of Flacotrochus deltoides, Conosmilia, and other solitary corals ; Spatangide and Lchinide; Pecten, LEmarginula, Siliquaria, Naiica, Cypraa contusa, C. eximia, C. platyrhynca(?), Trivia avellanoides, Voluta Hannafordi (fragments), Corus (four species), fusus, Murex velificus ; also numerous polyzoa, and other fossils not identified. Living specimens of Pfolas were found in the clay between the tide marks. On a ballot being taken, Mr. H. H. Baker, Master C. N. Carter, Dr. Crooke, Mr. Jas. Love, and Dr. Snowball were duly elected members of the Club. Messrs. C. Frost and H. Kennon were elected to audit the Club accounts for the year 1888-9. Papers for future meetings were promised by Mr. E. M. Cornwall, on “Collecting Near Home,” and Mr. C. French, F.L.S., on “ Australian Buprestidee,” part 2. PAPERS READ. 1. By Mr. C. French, F.L.S.—‘ On the Geographical Distribu- tion of the Australian Buprestide,” part 1. This was principally introductory, giving some suggestions as to how insects may become distributed from their original habitat. The author THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 45 asked the co-operation of other collectors in making a complete list of the Victorian buprestidze, and trusted that other members would take up other orders and families of insects. 2 By Mr. H. T. Tisdall, F.L.S., entitled “The Fungi of the Season.” The author gave a brief account of the more prominent species he had observed this season, which he said was a most favourable one, and mentioned that he had obtained 27 species of fungi, unknown to him, recently. He also exhibited’a series of drawings and specimens in illustration of his remarks. The principal exhibits of the evening were :—By Mr. F. G. A. Barnard.—Cyprea eximia, and other fossil shells, corals, &c., from Mornington; also samples of the material of the fossil beds, and lignite, from same locality. By Mr. A. Coles.—A Bronze Ibis, from Boort ; nine eggs, portion of seventy-five taken from a boa constrictor, length 17% feet, girth 23 inches, from Ceylon, which diedin Melbourne. By Mr. C. French, F.L.S.— Rare fungus, Marasmius equicrinis (F. v. M.) from St. Patrick’s River, East Gippsland, recorded only once previously from Victoria. By Mr. C. French, jun.—Eggs of Orange-winged Sitella, White-headed Stilt, Owlet Nightjar, and Satin Bower-bird, from Victoria, Spangled Dronga-Shrike (new), from North Australia, and Strong-billed Honey-eater, from Tasmania. By Mr. H. Grayson.—Series of botanical preparations for the microscope. By Mr. R. Hall.—Specimens of Orange Gorgonia, oysters, crabs, &c., dredged off the Ninety-mile Beach, by Government steamer Lady Loch, May, 1889. By Mr. T. S. Hall. —Murex sp., and other fossils, from Mornington. By Mr. H. Kennon.—Fossils from Mornington. By Mr. G. Lyell.—Queens- land lepidoptera. By Baron F. von Mueller, K.C.M.G.—Dried specimens of Oldenlandia psychotrioides, Fagrea alteniana, Morinda hypotephra, Symplocos Kelleri (new plants), collected by Mr. W. Sayer, at Mount Bellenden-Ker, North Queensland, described by exhibitor; also new plants from Port Darwin and North Queensland. By Mr. H. T. Tisdall.—Twelve coloured drawings, in illustration of his paper. After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. THE ANNUAL CONVERSAZIONE. THE ninth annual conversazione of the Club was held at the Freemasons’ Hall, Ccllins-street east, Melbourne, on Thursday evening, 16th May, 1889, when there was, as usual, a large attendance of the members and their friends, over 700 ladies and gentlemen being present. The president, Mr. A. H. S. Lucas, M.A., B.Sc., delivered the 46 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. annual address in the upper hall, which was filled by an attentive audience. He said— LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MEMBERS OF THE FIELD NATURALISTS’ CLUB OF VICTORIA, We have now completed the ninth year of existence of our Club, and have, as usual, to rejoice over a vigorous and successful session. Fortunately with us there is no party of opposition, and our work goes on free from hindrance by obstructionists. We have in consequence to record good progress in all departments of our work, and are able to congratulate ourselves upon the thoroughly healthy condition of our society. We are happy in that we have to mourn over no losses to our membership through death this year. Our accessions, too, exceed our losses from other causes. We are especially glad to note an increase of strength amongst our younger members, which augurs well for the future of the Club. The monthly meetings have been weil attended. We have had much pleasure in welcoming the presence at some of them of our hon. members, Sir James Hector and Prof. Tate, and of a number of other distinguished visitors, attracted to Melbourne by the Centennial Exhibition and by the Medical Congress. The papers read at these meetings have covered a wide range of topics, and indicate activity in many directions. We have been favoured with communications from two of our hon. members. Rev. Julian E. Tenison-Woods has contributed an epitome of the geology of Arnhem’s Land, “ which, though dis- covered over 300 years ago, has only lately been explored.” And Prof. Ralph Tate has rescued the Voluta undulata group of shells from the confusion into which the nomenclature had fallen. The Baron von Mueller has continued his descriptions and notes of Australian plants. Amongst the new species described are two Victorian plants—a new goodenia from the Wimmera and the Murray River flats, and a new orchid from Eastern Gippsland. The number of Victorian vascular plants, z.e., the flowering plants, and the ferns with their allies, now recorded exceeds 1,900. The Rey. F. R. M. Wilson has made further observations on Victorian lichens, and has described a number of new species. Mr. W. M. Bale has given us a systematic list of Victorian hydroida, and Mr. - Gatliff has completed his catalogue of Victorian marine shells. ~ In Mr. A. J. Campbell’s fifth supplement to his “Oology of ~ Australian Birds” we have descriptions, for the first time, of the eggs of the Spotted Owl and the Spotted Water Crake (obtained in Tasmania by Mr. E. D. Atkinson), of the Spangled Dronga- Shrike and the Black-cheeked Noddy Tern from Queensland, and of other birds. Mr. C. French has written on the zoology of the Lake Albacutya district, and on the natural history of the Western Wimmera, and Mr. C. French, jun., on a trip to the Upper THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 47 « Murray. Mr. Barnard and Mr. Brittlebank have furnished interesting observations on the habits of insects, and the former also read a paper giving a succinct account of our Victorian butterflies. A similar paper by Mr. Lucas dealt with the Victorian sharks. Mr. F. R. Godfrey gave an account of the delicate pelagic organisms met with and preserved by him during a long voyage in a sailing vessel. In “Recollections of my Residence in N.W. Australia” the customs and manners of the aboriginals are delineated. Two of our members have visited neighbouring colonies during the year, and we have the result of some of their observations in Mr. Topp’s botanical and geological notes on a visit to New South Wales and Mr. Barnard’s vivid description of the Jenolan Caves. _ The important excursion of the year was that to Eastern Gippsland. The party was small, only five members taking part, as compared with the 26 who explored King Island last season. Those who went to Croajingolong were Prof. Baldwin Spencer, Mr. Charles French, F.L.S., and Messrs. Frost, Searle, and Jackson. A narrative of the trip, containing full particulars of the objects noted in this picturesque and but little known district, appears in the current number of the Victorian Naturalist, the journal of our Club. I am happy to be able to add that the issue, which is a double number, is illustrated by a double-page map, and by five lithographed plates. We are especially indebted to Professor Spencer for enabling us to realize from his beautiful pencil and water-colour sketches some of the features of this romantic corner of Victoria. The physiognomy of the vegeta- tion, to borrow a phrase from Humboldt, is to be conceived from the occurrence of cabbage palms “running up to a height of more than 100 feet,” of waratahs to a height of 50 feet, and of the elegant composite, Humea elegans, to 15 or even 20 feet. The importance of preserving portions of the district from occupation, in order that this gorgeous native vegetation might gladden the eyes of posterity, was so strongly felt by the members of the Club that a deputation was appointed to wait upon the Minister of Lands, and to urge him to make a suitable reservation. In response to this application, Mr. Dow has been pleased to add about 8,500 acres to the forest reserve in the parishes of Jirrah and ‘Tabbara, in the Cabbage Tree Creek district. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the noble palm trees, the only specimens of their order which are indigenous to _ Victoria, will be secured from destruction. The year has shown very greatly increased activity amongst workers in biology and geology in Victoria. Our veteran Pro- fessor M‘Coy has brought out Decades XVI. and XVII. of the “ Prodromus of Victorian Zoology,” and amongst other forms elucidated are five species, representing as many genera, of those 48 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. curious snake-like lizards, of which the English blind-worm is a familiar example, and which, though on the whole more closely related to the lizards, go a long way towards bridging over the gap between the lizards and the snakes. Professor Spencer has completed his ‘‘ Monograph on the Giant Gippsland Earth- worm,” published by the Royal Society of Victoria as part 1 of its ‘‘ Transactions.” It has been received with warm praise, and even with a touch of envy, by the English reviewers. Mr. Dendy has published an account of a new and singular genus of polyzoa, in which the polypes incrust themselves with aggregations of small particles of sand, and of which two species have already been found in Port Phillip. He has also continued his work on‘ the “‘Sponges,” contributing papers, both systematic and histo- logical, to the Royal Society of Victoria, the “‘ Annals and Maga- zine of Natural History,” and to the Q.J.M.S. Results of Dr. Macgillivray’s work on the polyzoa appear in the “ Prodromus of Zoology ;” and of Mr. Bale’s on the hydroida, in the “ Pro- ceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales.” The work of the Port Phillip Biological Survey by the Royal Society has been continued, and reports have been received from specialists on the Crinoids, the Mollusca, and the fish of Port Phillip. Mr. Bracebridge Wilson has devoted his summer, as usual, to work on the marine fauna of the deeper waters of the bay, and we may look for fresh results without fear of disappointment. I have been favoured by a statement of botanical progress in the following letter from the Baron von Mueller :— 1st May, 1889. Tn accordance with your wishes, dear Mr. Lucas, I beg to explain that an “* Atlas of Australian Salsolaceze” is under progress in my department, by the aid of Mr. G. Luehmann, the drawings and lithography by Mr. R. Graff. The object is, to enable pastoralists to ascertain with ease and exactitude the scientific names and characteristics of the rather more than one hundred species of Australian salsolaceze mostly peculiar to this part of the world. It can be easily foreseen that methodic re-dissemination will have to be resorted to on the runs, to keep up the growth of the most nutritious of these salt-bushes for the herds and flocks, irrespective of the desirability to raise, as new for any suitable locality, such of these salsolaceze as do not originally exist there. The volume will contain about a hundred plates, will be in conformity with those of the ‘‘ Myoporine ” and ‘‘ Acacize,” and will likely be finished by the end of this year. I hope, also, to resume, as a bye work, the elaboration of the Papuan plants, and am further eager to finish early, also, the twelfth volume of the ‘‘Fragmenta.” The supply of the ‘‘ Census of Australian Plants” being exhausted, a new edition, comprising all supplements, also, since 1882, can, I trust, be early brought out, and in a slightly extended form. That the ‘“‘ Key I.” and the seventh (enlarged) edition of the ‘‘ Select Plants” did appear since your last address you will be aware.—Regardfully yours, FERD. VON MUELLER. In Paleontology there is also something to report. Some of our Victorian caves have been opened up, the stalagmitic floor removed, and the bones found beneath preserved. We shall THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 49 await with interest Mr. Stirling’s account of these presumably pleistocene relics. Most present will probably have read descrip- tions of the scientific exploration of British caves, and will remember how abundant remains were found of animals long extinct in Britain. Some of the caves proved to have been dens in which hyzenas lived, and to which they brought bones, and assuredly also flesh, of mammoth, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, bison, bear, and deer. Others furnished bones and other tokens of occupation or use by man. Something has been already learnt of the predecessors of the present fauna of Australia from a study of the Wellington and other caves in New South Wales, and some of the Tasmanian caves yielded treasure when explored by Mr. Wintle, and we anticipate that cave-hunting will prove as fascinating and as successful in Victoria. A number of the fossils from the Muddy Creek tertiary beds in the Western District have been figured by Professor Tate. But the most important work in this subject during the year has been accom- plished in an older formation. One of our members, Mr. George Sweet, has made an extensive examination of the old red sandstone rocks of the Mansfield area. Backed by the Government, his excavations were made on a large scale, and many tons of stuff—the stuff being rock of the hardest descrip- tion—were removed under his superintendence. His search has been rewarded by the discovery of many fish and plant remains. Some of the fish were in a state of capital preservation, and were so carefully and skilfully relieved of the matrix by Mr. Sweet that Professor M‘Coy, who has undertaken the description of the most important of the fossils, is enabled to identify the forms pre- viously known, and to prepare excellent figures of the new species. Mr. Sweet read a paper before the Victorian Royal Society, in which he gave in full the relations of the very numerous beds, and described the mineral character of each, together with the fossils each contained. We are glad to learn that Mr. Sweet purposes to continue his investigations, and to examine the similar beds in other portions of the area. Such, then, are the principal additions to our knowledge of Victorian natural history made during the year. It is one function of our Society to bring the gains won by those who are prosecuting original researches before our members and the public. But this is by no means our sole duty—to be keen only for that which is brand new, fresh from the study or the laboratory, rejoice though we do to welcome all advance, and to laud all achievements, in pure science. But the great majority of the members of our Club are banded together for the systematic enjoyment, as much as for the systematic study, of Nature. We may have wrestled with the problems of geology, but we have learned to love the forms wrought out by earth-sculpture, the 50 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. grandeur of mountain range or sea cliff, the soft beauty of valley or glade. We may have puzzled over the “ Key” to work out the name and place of the plants we have gathered, but we remember them best as they grew interwoven in some nook on the moor or in the forest. We may have toiled with scalpel or with microscope to make out the structure of land or sea animals, but we yet have sympathy with bright eye of bird, quick turn of lizard, hum of bee, or chirp of grasshopper, the humble life of the worm in the soil, and the mysteries of the lives lived beneath the waves. And how much we have gained this year in this way we cannot estimate. We have treasured up views of broad out- lines, of noble landscapes, and pleasant pictures of detailed beauty ; we have filled our common paths in the country with pleasing associations ; and we have felt ourselves, and perhaps succeeded in imparting to others, a living interest in the wonderful and beautiful forms of life which exist in such variety around us. And if we had made but this record for the year, who shall say that it has been spent in vain? For it is a great thing to acquire and to communicate to others a knowledge, but, I think, a greater still to acquire and diffuse amongst one’s fellows a love, of Nature. : The Rev. J. J. Halley then delivered an interesting lecturette, entitled, “Short Stories of Strange Lives.” He rapidly sketched the most striking features of the habits of parasitic animals of several classes, and gave an account of some of the more remark- able life-histories. He concluded by giving at length a descrip- tion of a parasite he had often observed occurring in the muscles and other parts of the common flat-head. He said that nearly every individual he had examined had been infested with the parasites, but that fortunately the cooked fish were none the worse for their presence. A vote of thanks to the President for his address, and to Mr. Halley for his lecturette, was moved by the Baron von Mueller. The Baron referred, in the course of his remarks, to the meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, to be held in Melbourne in the summer, and hoped that the Field Club would be well represented by members and papers. He recalled, in an exceedingly interesting manner, his recollec- tions of a meeting of the German Association in 1843. At that meeting were present, amongst others, Oersted, Schleiden, Rammelsberg, Berzelius, and he (the Baron) had never lost the effect of the stimulus which association with such men _ had afforded. He trusted that young members of the Australasian Association would look back with similar feelings to the meeting at Melbourne. THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST, 51 The vote was seconded by Rev. Dr. Bevan, who congratulated the Club on the hearty welcome they accord to young people. The main hall was entirely devoted to the exhibits bythe members of the Club, and which comprised a large number of both rare and interesting specimens in all branches of natural science. Some idea may be formed of the display when it is remembered that Over 1,000 square feet of table space and 300 square feet of wall space were required to accommodate the wants of the exhibitors. The body of the hall was occupied with a series of long tables, with shorter tables across the centre ; whilst round the walls were short tables and light wooden stands, covered with dried plants, &c., the stage being occupied with a fine group of Victorian ferns, in pots, from the Botanical Gardens, and several exhibits of live Australian animals and birds, which proved an interesting feature in the conversazione. The following is a list of the exhibitors, with particulars of their more important exhibits :— Mr. P. H. Andersoa, Surrey Hills.—Skull, bones, hide, &c., of dugong ( Haticore Australis), from North Queensland ; collection of geological specimens; specimens of insect anatomy and architecture, with diagrams ; several microscopes, with insect dissections and other objects. Mr. H. H. Baker, Melbourne.—Microscopes, with rare and interesting objects, such as rare diatoms, butterflies’ eggs, fungi, &c. Mr. F. G. A. Barnard, Kew.—Cases of Victorian lepidoptera, case of Queensland butterflies, case of Queensland beetles, a Delicate Owl (mounted), Victorian and other ferns (in pots), growing specimens of Azolla Siliculotdes ; also, a live Rosella Parrot (Platycercus eximius ). Mr. D. Best, Hawthorn.—Pair of Australian Bee-eaters (Merops ornatus), mounted, and bird-skins, from Mulwala, New South Wales ; cabinet drawers of Australian coleoptera ; case of Aus- tralian ‘hymenoptera, and a number of Victorian ferns (in pots). Mr. G. F. Chamberlin, South Yarra.—A collection of minerals ; photographs of Jenolan Caves, Blue Mountains, the Terraces, New Zealand, Gembrook Ranges, Victoria, &c. Mr. A. Coles, Melbourne.—A large collection of mounted animals, birds, &c., comprising platypus, English otter, porcupine, lion monkey (Ceylon), orang-outang (Borneo), stags’ heads (Victoria), Straw-necked Ibis, Grass Owl, Hooded Dottrell, King Quail, Plain Plover, Wedge-tailed Eagle, White Goshawk, Power- ful owl, Horned Owl (America), Crested Pigeon (Ceylon), alligators (Queensland), Cobra (Ceylon), &c. Mr. EK. M. Cornwall, South Yarra.—Frame of sea-weeds, &c. ; mounted birds and eggs. 52 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. Mr. A. Dendy, M.Sc., University.—Live specimens of Perz- patus leuckarté, from near Ballarat, only recently recorded for Victoria. Mr. J. E. Dixon, Oakleigh.—Habitations of various Victorian insects, viz. :—Cocoons of moths and micro-lepidoptera, nests of wasps, &c., nests and egg-cocoons of spiders; sea-weed, &c., from New Year Island, Bass’ Straits. Mrs. Flatow, Carlton.--Mounted ferns and sea-weeds; sea- weeds, sponges, shells from Australia and New Zealand ; fossil ammonites from Morley Main coalpits, Leeds, England. Mr. J. Foulke, South Yarra.—A pair of live Southern Stone Plovers. Mr. C. French, F.L.S., South Yarra.—Case of Australian and exotic buprestid beetles ; 100 sheets of dried plants, collected on Croajingolong expedition ; water-colour drawings by Miss M. Scott, of “My Camp at Lake Albacutya,” and ‘Sand-hills, Pijick, Lake Albacutya.” Mr. C. French, jun., South Yarra.—Case of rare eggs of Australian birds. Mr. C. Frost, Kew.—Collection of sixty species of Victorian spiders, preserved in fluid; pair of live bronze-winged pigeons (Phaps chalcoptera). Mr. J. H. Gatliff, Collingwood.—Two cabinet drawers of marine shells, family Volutidae, genera Cymbium, Melo, Voluta, and Lyria, comprising fifty species and 130 specimens. Mr. W. R. Guilfoyle, F.L.S., Botanical Gardens.—Collection of about forty species of Victorian ferns (in pots), comprising Adiantum diaphanum, Cyathea Boylei, C. medullaris, Davalha pyxidata, Pieris tremula, &c. Mr. R. Hall, Wiliamstown.—Victorian birds and birds’ eggs. Master Hellicar, Hawthorn.—Mounted specimens of Porcu- pine Ant-eater, Nankeen Night Heron, Egret, Crested Grebe, and snipe ; case of Australian birds’ eggs; case of British sea-birds’ eggs. Mr. G. R. Hill, Windsor.—Nest of American trap-door spider. Master H. F. Hill, Windsor.—Six cabinet drawers of Victorian lepidoptera. Master G. F. Hill, Windsor.—Three cabinet drawers of Victorian coleoptera. Mr. E. E. Johnson, Northcote.—A large collection of natural history objects of various kinds—30o0 specimens of Australian birds, including Cape York Sun-bird, Gilbert’s wren, Cat-bird, Delicate Owl, Letter-winged Kite, Yellow-eared Cockatoo, White- tailed Kingfisher, &c. ; case of swallow-dicceums (nest, young male, and adult pair); case of birds’ eggs; collection of nests; Victorian snakes, lizards, &c.; corals, sea-urchins, &c. ; fossils from Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania, England and Japan ; THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 53 diamonds, &c., from Kimberley, South Africa ; peat from Morn- ington, Victoria ; fungi, lichen, grasses, &c. Mr. G. A. Keartland, North Carlton.—Case of Victorian birds (mounted) ; collection of Victorian birds’-eggs ; live parrots, and opossum. Mr. H. Kennon, Hawthorn.—Collection of minerals, &c , over 1,000 specimens ; twenty-five species of corals. Mr. W. Kershaw, Windsor.—Four drawers Australian lepidop- tera ; two drawers of foreign lepidoptera ; two drawers of foreign coleoptera ; case of New Guinea bird-skins. Mr. S. Lamble, Kew.—Sandstone showing casts of fossils, from Heathcote; sand-encrusted roots, from Anglesea River. Mr. T. A. Forbes-Leith, Northcote.—Birds from Ceylon, &c. ; birds captured in Red Sea; flying fish, from Indian Ocean ; collection of photographs of various races of mankind. Mr. D. Le Souéf, Royal Park.—Case with pair of Apteryx Mantelli and egg from New Zealand, young platypus (in spirits), giant sponge, live carpet and diamond snakes, live clyodus lizards. Master R. Long, Richmond.—A live opossum, skeletons of opossums ; seal, captured in Hobson’s Bay (mounted). Mr. A. H. S. Lucas, M.A., B.Sc., South Yarra.— Herbarium specimens of British wild flowers ; Victorian fish, shells, and star- fish. Mr. G. Lyell, jun, South Melbourne.—Two cases of Victorian butterflies (Vymphalide, Lycenide, Hesperide) ; case of moths. Mrs. W. Martin, North Brighton.—Sixty species of Victorian mosses (including eight new to science). Baron F. von Mueller, K.C.M.G., South Yarra.—Australian plants, collected by Robert Brown in 1802-5; new Australian plants (including Dammara Patmerstonii), from Upper Johnstone River, North Queensland; prepared and mounted European fungi. Mr. J. E. Prince, Windsor.—Album of sixty ferns and lycopods from New Zealand and fifty from Fiji; photographs of Croajin- golong scenery. Miss Roberts, Richmond—Victorian sponges, coral, penguins (mounted). Mr. J. Searle, Carlton.—Live specimens of King Lory and Port Lincoln parrots ; Cockatoo Parrakeet, Wonga Pigeon, &c. Mr. J. Smith, South Melbourne.—Group of portraits of ‘ scien- tific worthies.” Mr. G. Sweet, Brunswick.—Collection of fossil fish, &c., from old red sandstone rocks near Mansfield, Victoria, including Gyracanthus obliquus (M‘Coy), Glyptolepis, Cosmolipides Sweetii (M‘Coy), Zupleurosmus Creswelli (M‘Coy), Lepiaodendron Mans- freldense, &c. a4 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. Mr. H. T. Tisdall, F.L.S., Toorak.—Coloured drawing of fungus ( Ballaria Mueller), from Lake Albacutya ; 120 coloured drawings of Victorian fungi. Mr. C. A. Topp, M.A., Kew.—New South Wales wild flowers (dried Mr. Ms Turnbull, Yarraville-—Two cabinet drawers of Victorian butterflies and moths, two cabinet drawers of British butterflies and moths. About half-past ten the visitors began to disperse, having spent a very pleasant and instructive evening. " DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME NEW AUSTRALIAN PLANTS. By Baron von MUELLER, K.C.M.G., M. & Pu.D., F.R.S., &e. OLDENLANDIA PSYCHOTRIOIDES. Leaves rather large, from ovate to elongate lanceolar, somewhat acuminate, almost membranous, narrowed into a short stalk, beneath slightly paler and along the thin venules beset with hair- lets, above glabrous ; stipules deltoid, short-pointed, fugacious ; cymes in a terminal divergently branched ; panicles bearing densely short appressed brownish-grey hairlets; flowers quite small, pentam- erous ; bracts minute, narrow-semilanceolar ; calyx-lobes roundish- deltoid, very short ; tube of the corolla almost entirely enclosed, inside glabrous, turgid, lobes membranous, venulous, about as long as the tube ; anthers almost sessile, ovate-ellipsoid, broadest towards the base, and there slightly bilobed, their apex minutely bidenticular, their dehiscence introrse ; style never much elon- gated ; stigmas very short; epigynous ‘disk beset with minute hairlets ; fruit small, only with its quadrivalvular summit emerg- ing, ovate-globular, slightly compressed ; placentaries inserted about the middle of the dissepiment; seeds numerous, very minute, shining brown, somewhat oblique-ovate, angular, reticular- foveolate. On the Russell River; W. Sayers. Among species with leaves of similar size and form O. acutan- gula, O. stylosa, O. viscida, O pruinosa, O. Lessertiana, O. purpurescens, and O. cymosa differ in almost complete absence of general vestiture and in a corolla with well emerging tube to some extent beset with hairlets inside, irrespective of some other charac- teristics not common to these seven species. O. arborea has an almost tubeless somewhat rigid corolla; O. /irsutissima fringed stipules, axillary inflorescence, and elongated filaments; O. Leschenaultiana \eaves rounded at the base, and also conspicu- ously paler beneath, denser inflorescence, fewer and larger seeds. Our new plant, moreover, diverges from most of its congeners in the five-lobed calyx, and the correspondingly five-cleft corolla and THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 55 number of stamens. A dimorphism of the flowers occurs, the stamens of some being inserted between the corolla lobes, in others near the base of the tube, while the length of the style in some flowers is greater than in others. MorInDA HYPOTEPHRA. Climbing ; leaves short-stalked, firmly chartaceous, mostly ovate-lanceolar, acuminate, above dark-green, beneath bearing a thin, somewhat velvet-like grey vestiture ; stipules fugacious ; peduncles short, few or two together or seldom solitary; headlets small, with only from two to five flowers perfecting their fruit ; involucral pericarp inside beset with rigidulous pale shining hair- lets, putamen of individual fruits almost ovate, smooth, com- paratively thick, dark outside. On Mount Bellenden-Ker, at a height of about 5,000 feet ; W. Sayer. Leaves and fruits, in size and shape, similar to those of JZ. jasminoides. Flowers as yet unknown. Putamen about 4 inch long. This plant has been alluded to already in the April num- ber of this periodical, 1887, but by name only. EULOPHIA HOLTZEI. Rhizome comparatively thin, somewhat basal, horizontally procurrent ; leaf long, broad-linear, gradually narrowed upwards, passing into a conspicuous stalk ; empty bracts, several or many, semilanceolate-linear ; flowers, twelve or fewer in each raceme, rather small, floral bracts reaching beyond the calyx-tube or even to the upper end of the calyx-lobes, membranous, very narrow, much pointed ; stalklets short, as well as the tube of the calyx densely beset with minute hairlets ; basal protrusion of the lower calyx-lobes blunt and very short; paired petals linear- lanceolar, as well as the lobes of the calyx pinkish, but somewhat yellow at the upper end ; lJabellum nearly as long as the other petals, its lateral lobes oblique-semielliptical, semewhat shorter than the middle lobe, the latter slightly dilated and roundish at the summit, with an additional minute apex, at the upper side towards the middle and base beset with glandular papillules ; ' gynostemium to near the summit very slender, bearing minute hairlets, about half as long as the calyx-lobes; young fruit hemi- ellipsoid. Near Port Darwin (M. Holtze) the species approaches &. rameniatea, but the leaf seems always an only one, and developed prior to the flowering stem, the bracts are longer and narrower, the flowers smaller, their basal protrusion is much shorter, and the gynostemium of less broadness. From the material before me, I have been unable to ascertain with exactitude the form of the pollinia and of their stipes. As an Australian plant this is very distinct. Se at ts fr Reena Sy we 56 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. REVIEW. Geology of Tasmania, by R. M. Johnston, F.L.S. THIS work contains, in addition to much new matter, the prin- cipal memoirs on the subject contributed by the author at various times to the Royal Society of Tasmania. Unfortunately, it is — published in such an expensive form that, to the majority of scientific students, the price is prohibitive. The chapter on the methods of determining rocks could be dispensed with, being adapted rather for a text-book of mineralogy than for a treatise on the descriptive geology of a country. A great number of plates are given as an appendix at the end of the volume. They include landscapes, sections of strata, and drawings of the prin- cipal fossils mentioned in the text. The long lists of fossils from the various sedimentary beds which are supplied are of special interest, as they include many forms of common occurrence with us, and thus demonstrate the close connection existing between the. geological history of Tas- mania and Victoria. In the table of tertiary mollusca a few shells are mentioned twice, though under different names, sufficient care not having been taken to exclude synonyms. The author’s sub- division of the tertiaries does not correspond exactly with that adopted by Victorian geologists. It is probable, however, that the key to the tertiary geology of Australia must be sought on this side of Bass’ Strait, where the deposits of the tertiary period are more extensive than in Tasmania. The paleozoic and mesozoic strata, as well as the ioneous rocks of the island, are treated of at length by Mr. Johnston. A full account is also given of the various metalliferous ores found in the colony. The book is remarkable as being mainly the result of one man’s labour, Mr. Johnston having personally examined almost every locality he refers to. Our thanks are due to him for the manner in which he has worked out, at the cost of much time and trouble, some of the intricate problems of Tasmanian geology. J.-B Mr. R. H. Nancarrow.—We regret to announce the death of one of the earliest members of our Club, Mr. R. H. Nancarrow, of Neilborough, which took place on roth May. Mr. Nancarrow was an entirely self-taught man, and though he only contributed one short paper, on the nidification of Acanthiza uropygialis, to the Club’s proceedings, still he was an active worker of the Bendigo Science Society, Sandhurst, for which he delivered several lectures on insect life, insectivorous birds, and kindred subjects, each of which were illustrated by excellent drawings and specimens of his own preparation. His place among the careful observers of the bird and insect life of the colony will not be easy to fill. f Bln of Picton. “e S aoa President: oe H. S. LUCAS, M.A., B.Sc, Tus C ub was founded in 1880 for the purpose of affording observers and lovers of fatural History regular and frequent opportunities for discussing those special sub- cts in which they are mutually interested ; for the Exhibition of Specimens ; and for TO roting Observations in the Field by means of Excursions to various collecting grounds around the Metropolis. No Entrance a Annual Subscription, ineluding copy of proceedings, 15s., dating : 3 Ondthary Meetings for the reading of papers, and exhibition of specimens, with — a short conversazione, are held on the second Monday in each month at the Royal Society’ s Hall, Victoria Street, Melbourne, at 8 p.m. The proceedings of the Club are recorded i in its journal—the “ evicioran Snel se es Annual Subscription, 6s. 6d., post free. (Lo members free.) “With the view of popularizing the study of the Natural History of the Colony, cor- espondence, notes, and queries relating to this subject are invited for insertion, and should be addressed to the Hditor at the Wesley College, Prahran. a ee "of the numbers from the commencement, January, 1884, can be obtained from the Hon. Sec, Mr. F. G. A. Barnard, Kew, at sixpence each; or in sets. Vol. I. (1884-85), 16 numbers, 7s. 6d.; Vol. II. (1885-86), 12 numbers, 6s.; Vol. III. (1886-87), 12 numbers. 6s.; Vol. IV. (1887- 88), 12 numbers, 6s.; each set with title- page and index for binding. — _ The numbers forwarded post free to any address on receipt of remittance (pestal- notes preferred). “Copies ‘of the Annual Report and List of Members for 1886-87, with Rules, ete., can ~ be obtained on application to the Hon. Sec. € A. COLES, }» Eaxidermist and Hurvier, 220 ELIZABETH ST., MELBOURNE. Birds, Animals, etc., Stuffed and: skilfully Mounted. ‘Bird and Animal Skins, Eggs, Shells, Aboriginal Weapons, etc., always on hand, ee Furs, Muffs, and Rugs for Sale, Repaired, or Made te Order, Lessons given in ‘Taxidermy. " te & C6, & REIMS, Be eS es SSN c Sax} z NK A Be Sg v S § ae Bz 2 eae NY ON SAN WN — Has the Largest Sale of any Champagne. - @ BH. MU SS + 2S ADOLPH JOSKE, BEST & CO. 16 Little Collins Street Hast. FELTON, GRIMWADE &O0,, CA halesale Drug Worchants, “MANUFACTURING CHEMISTS, IMPORTERS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION OF MICROSCOPES, MICROSCOPICAL ACCESSORIES, cea mes, CHEMICAL AND SCIENTIFIC. APPARATUS, &C., aS SUPERIOR STUDENTS’ MICROSCOPES. BECK’S “STAR” MONOCULAR MICROSCOPE, with rack and pinion coarse adjust- ment, iris diaphragm, double mirror, fing adjustment by screw, I eye-piece, 1 in and Yin. Objective, in case, £44 12s. 6d BECK’S “ECONOMIC” MICROSCOPES, from 47 6s. to Arr IIs. BECK’S ‘‘POPULAR” MICROSCOPES, from £12 5s. to £27 55. BECK’S “NATIONAL” MICROSCOPES, from £12 5s. to £38 tos. Particulars of various other Miecroseopes, by best English and Foreign = Makers, may be had’ on application. | é ‘ SSeS ieee ae MELBOURNE: 381 & 83 FLINDERS LANE WEST. BN MANDA RADA SAFIN IIS OS . Vou, VI.—No. be : oe _ AuGust, 1889. _ The Field Aaturalists” Glub of Wirtoria. he records. III III III III INI III II I * a CONTENTS. A Hunt For LicHEens in East Gippstanp. By Rev. F. R. __M. Witson... an ai Hee pee cee 57 PAGE A ADDITIONAL: LIsT or LICHENS New To Vicroria. By . Rev. F. R. M. Witson es 60 _A DEscrIpTION OF FORTY-ONE VICTORIAN LICHENS NEW TO -. Screncr. By Rey. F. R. M. Witson a 61 < THe Birps or Metron. By G. A. KEARTLAND .. eis) “& PRICE SIXPENCE. » Agents for Guroype ; ULAU & CO., 37 Soho Square, London. | — f+ ag Melbourne : : WALKER, MAY & CO., PRINTERS, 9 MACKILLOP STREET. is 1889, . VNION I NIN ON ONION ON OSPR NESS ANN NANA SAN IN ANAS ERE oN LOX Ie -\-5 + PNAS ANEN ANAS ANN Sa ——)) NANOS OS III INI I ILO INI DS NII ONO LAN ONS OSES ONAN PN ONE OS ON PS OSES LONE ONE ENN IN (Twenty Years with PAUL THOMAS), i IMPORTER AND MANUFACTURER | GCF FIRST-CLASS BooTs AND sHons, LAI CASH PRICES. SAAR AAS AAR AAR AR THE QUEEN for LADIES. The most ona oe Boots and Shoes made. WIDE TOES, LOW HEELS. 67 (old No. 44) SWANSTON STREET _ (Between Flinders Lane and Collins Street), And at THE BON MARCHE BOOT CO., 596 COLLINS ST. (Near Spencer Street), Ss MELBOURNE. THIS SPACE TO LET. 4 ne THE WMictorian Paturalist. Vou. VI.—No. 4. AUGUST, 1889. No. 68. A HUNT FOR LICHENS IN EAST GIPPSLAND. By Rev. F. R. M. WILSson. (Read before the Field Naturalists’ Club, 11th March, 1889.) Durinc the month of December it was arranged that the excur- sion to East Gippsland should be divided into two—one party to examine the neighbourhood of Orbost, and the other to proceed through Orbost to the boundary of New South Wales. When the time for the excursion arrived, the Orbost party had dwindled down to one. That one, however, did not lose courage ; but, forming himself into a forlorn hope, began the assault on the appointed day, Monday, 24th December, and took train to Bairnsdale. At present there are two coaches to Orbost, one from Bairnsdale through Bruthen, and the other from Cunning- hame at the Lakes’ Entrance. Of the two the latter was found the more convenient. Taking the boat, therefore, at Bairnsdale, your excursionist arrived that evening at Cunninghame, and pro- ceeded to Roadknight’s Hotel. As the coach leaves that hotel for Orbost on Sundays and Wednesdays, there was an interval of a day to be spent at the Lakes’ Entrance. Although the scrub about Roadknight’s hotel has been nearly all fired, and lichens are consequently few, a number of the commoner sorts were noted, such as Usnea barbata, everywhere so abundant through- out the world; Farmelia ulophylla, P. perforata, P. caperata, all very common in the colony; P. dilzacea, P. perlata, P. pertusa, P. Borrert, P. tenuirima, P. placorhodioides, Theloschistes chryosph- thalmus, Physcia stellaris, Cladonia verticillata, C. furcata, C. pyxidata, C. aggregata, Ramalina calicaris, R fraxinea, Peltigera polydactyla, Lecanora atra, L. parella, &c. Collections were made of several Graphidei, Lecanore, &c., which have been found only in Gippsland, and the names of which are still undetermined. One prize was got—a new species of the genus Conzocybe, a genus hitherto unknown to the southern hemisphere. The species has been named rhodocephala, from the rosy colour of its capitulum. A full description is given elsewhere. While collecting these lichens in the lilypilli scrub the note of the bell-bird attracted attention. At first this unusual and somewhat musical sound is rather pleasant; but, after a pro- 5 58 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. tracted examination of a gulley for lichens, the continued repetition of the same note for several hours becomes monotonous, and the bell-bird becomes a bore. Very few other birds were seen ; and, indeed, animal as well as vegetable life is rather scarce on the burnt ground in Gippsland. The journey to Orbost by coach is not very interesting, especially after passing Lake Tyers. The soil between Cunninghame and the valley of the Snowy River is poor, and the forest trees rather stunted. They are chiefly stringybark, with here and there an ironbark or occa- sionally a few white gums. A recent bush fire has passed through, and left them and the soil all black and barren-looking, and the whole country dismal. About Lake Tyers the view is more open, and as the bush fires have not been so recent, the country looks better. There is also a greater variety in the vegetation. But the lichenologist finds only a poor return for the exertions necessary in hunting for specimens. After a dreary drive of six or seven hours through the charred forest, the coach was stopped about three miles from Orbost by a gentleman with a buggy. Having been previnusly written to by Mr. A. J. Campbell, a prominent member of the Club, he had come to meet the excursionists, and had been awaiting the belated coach for several hours. He gave to the sole surviving excursionist a hearty welcome, drove him to his home, enter- tained him most hospitably for a week, advised him as to the most likely spots for lichens, and, with a warmth of scientific interest and a self-denial rarely met, gave him personal guidance to all the places about Orbost where there is still unburned scrub. These are all in Numerella—ze., the west side of the Snowy River. They are not many, and not large, but they are rather widely separated. Putting them all together, they would be probably not more than thirty acres. The best place was a belt of scrub along the north shore of Lake Wat Wat. and the remark applies to all East Gippsland—the luxuriant growth of clematis and smilax, which spread themselves among the upper branches of the scrub, produces a dense shade, in which lichens will not grow at all. Only in the more open spots in the scrub and on the outside of it are any lichens to be found. And as the fire had burned into the scrub as far as it could, there was left but a narrow field for examination. ‘Two new lichens were found here—a Siictina, which has been named fustulosa, and a minute variety of a Leptogium common enough throughout Victoria :-—ZL. leucocarpum (Taylor), var. minus (Wilson). Pretty large collections, how- ever, were made of several species already found in smaller quantities in other parts of East Gippsland, especially of a Chiodecton, which has been named encephalodes. THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 59 Inquiries were made as to the probability of a better field in Croajingalong. But it was reported that the fires had extended all along the river up nearly to the Buchan, and down to Marlow, and to the east as far as the Broadrib, and even beyond it ; and although there is still left to the south-east of Mount Raymond, about the Cabbage Tree Creek, some scrub untouched by fire— because, indeed, it cannot well be burned—a trip thither could not easily be made ; it would need a tent and packhorses and guide. And the only man near Orbost who really knows that part had been engaged by the Croagingolong excursionists. ‘The weather, too, was sultry—most unusually so—and threatened a change ; and, after hearing a description of the country from a person who had gone through it more than once (a description which is borne out by the account given us last month by Professor Spencer), your excursionist came unwillingly to the conclusion that he must leave that not very promising field to the energies of younger men. Returning by coach to Cunninghame, a day was spent up the Backwater, where there are several very interesting gullies, with unburned scrub containing Pittosporums, Lilypillis, and other trees which lichens love. Here, indeed, is a far more hopeful field for the lichenologist than the Orbost country. Nearly all the lichens found there are found here also, and several others besides. Some occur here which have not been found elsewhere. On the older ti-tree scrub in the swampy ground are found Panznaria lurida, P. nigro-cincta, Leptogium phyllocarpum (in fruit), Sticta aurata, Ramalina fraxinea, Xc. On the Banksias, near the swamps, are Syechoblastus nigrescens, S. glaucophthalmus, Pannaria fulvescens, Lecanora parella, L. atra, one or two Pertussarias, and graphidei of various genera. In the lilypilli scrub are found Hematomma Babbingtonit, one or two Chiodecta, Platygrapha albo-vestita, Trypethelium fumoso cinereum, Glyphis Kirtoniana, &c. While searching for these there were noticed many fungi and phanerogamous plants; also, insects and birds not readily met elsewhere. Students of natural history who desire a somewhat new and interesting field, are advised to try Cunninghame and Rosherville. These places are easily accessible, are within a day of Melbourne, board is comparatively cheap and very comfortable, and the unburned and unspoiled scrub can be reached with not much expenditure of strength. At Cunninghame a boat can be got at the Backwater, and half-an-hour’s row will delight the lovers of scenery and will bring the student of natural history into spots where he can study wombats, wallabies, bell birds, rotten logs, leeches, ticks, and mosquitoes to his heart’s content. 60 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. AN ADDITIONAL LIST OF LICHENS NEW TO VICTORIA. By Rev. F. F. M. WILson. (Exhibited before the Field Naturalists’ Club, 11th March, 1889.) Collema atrum. Wilson, sp. nov. Collema congestum. Wilson, sp. nov. Collema lencocarpum. ‘Taylor ; var. minus, Wilson Collema quadriloculare. Wilson, sp. nov. Collema senecionis. Wilson, sp. nov. Leptogium Victorianum. Wilson Leptogium limbatum. Wilson, sp. nov. Leptogium olivaceum. Wilson, sp. nov. Leptogium olivaceum, var. isidiosum. Wilson Obryzum myriopus. Wilson, sp. nov. Myriangium dolichosporum. Wilson, sp. nov. Sphinctrina microcephala. Nyl.; var. tenella, Wilson Calicium tricolor. Wilson, sp. nov. Calicium gracillimum. Wilson, sp. nov. Calicium nigrum. Scheerer ; var. minutum, Knight Calicium parietinum. Acharius Calicium hyperellum. Ach. ; var. validius, Knight Coniocybe rhodocephala. Wilson, sp. nov. Trachylia emergens. Wilson, sp. nov. Trachylia exigua. Wilson, sp. nov. Trachylia lecanorina. Wilson, sp. nov. Trachylia viridilocularis. Wilson, sp. nov. Boeomyces fusco-carneus. Wilson, sp. nov. Boeomyces heteromorphus. Nyl. Cladonia cariosa. Flk. ; var. diffissa. Wilson Cladonia hastata. Wilson, sp. nov. Cladonia xanthoclada. J. Muller Phyllis melacarpa. Wilson, gen. et sp. nov. Pilophoron conglomeratum. Wilson, sp. nov. Stereocaulon corticatulum. Ny]. Stereocaulon leptaleum. Ny]. Stereocaulon nanum. Nyl. Ramalina brevis. Wilson, sp. nov. Ramalina calicaris. Hffm.; var canaliculata, Taylor Ramalina subgeniculata. Knight Ramalina unilateralis. Wilson, sp. nov. Solorina sorediifera. Ny]. Stictina pustulosa. Wilson, sp. nov. Sticta rubella. Hook. et Taylor Parmelia caperata. L.; var. sorediosa, Wilson Parmelia ulophylla. Acharius Parmelia saxatilis. L.; var. furfuracea, Scherer THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 61 Parmelia subccerulea. Wilson, sp. nov. Parmelia albata. Wilson, sp. nov. Parmelia tiliacea. Acharius; var. concentrica, Leight Parmelia Kamtschadalis. Eschw. Pamelia colpodes. Acharius ; var. spheeroidispora, Wilson Theloschistes velifer. Wilson, sp. nov. Physcia astroidea. Clemente Physcia confluens. Fries. Physcia nodosa. Wilson, sp. nov. Psoroma biatorinum. Wilson, sp. nov. Psoroma contortulum. Wilson, sp. nov. Psoroma lineare. Wilson, sp. nov. Pannaria molybdodes. Wilson, sp. nov. Pannaria cheirolepis. Wilson, sp. nov. Pannaria parmelize. Wilson, sp. nov. Pannaria thraustolepis. Wilson, sp. nov. Amphiloma lanuginosum. Acharius Biatora botyriza. Nyl. Lecidea myriocarpa Platygrapha albo-vestita. Knight Arthonia pardalis. Wilson, sp. nov. Chiodecton encephalodes. Wilson, sp. nov. Trypethelium subumblicatum. Knight. A DESCRIPTION OF FORTY-ONE VICTORIAN LICHENS NEW TO SCIENCE. By Rev. F. R. M. Witson. (lead before the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, 11th March, 1889. ) 1. Collema congestum. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus small (to 1 in. diam.), black, cartilaginous, difformi- lobate; lobes roundish, margin elevated, thickened, crenate. Apothecia somewhat large (to 2 mm. diam.), crowded together and covering the centre of the thallus, pallidly or obscurely rufous or black, plane with thickish thalline margin, at length convex and irregular and margin withdrawn. Spores cylindrical or ellipsoideo-cylindrical, sometimes rather curved, simple or uniseptate (‘o17 mm. long, ‘0035 thick). Paraphyses thick, inarticulate. Gel. hym. blue with iodine, thece intensely so. Granula gonima in sacs, two or three or more in each, not monili- form. Habitat on mosses, &c., on maritime calcareous rocks. 2. Collema quadriloculare. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus fusco-olivaceous or black, membranaceous, adhering, complicato-lobate, lobes thicker at margin and crisped, Apothecia 62 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. moderate, black or rufous black, crowded, plane or somewhat con- cave, with thalline margin entire. Spores cylindrical, rounded at each end, sometimes rounded at each end, sometimes rather curved, four-celled (-o2-"03 mm. long, ‘003—"o05 thick). Paraphyses fine, inarticulate. Granula gonima moniliform, but some gathered into fours in gelatinous sacs. Habitat on mosses on sub-alpine rocks. 3. Collema senecionts. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus fuscous green or olivaceous, sometimes deep sea-green and bluish-green beneath, membranaceous, thin, sometimes shining and sometimes’ granulate rugulose (2 to 3 in. diam.), rotundo-lobate ; lobes ascending at margin, imbricate, undulate, crispate. Apothecia rufous or testaceo-rufous, plane or somewhat convex, moderate (1 mm. diam.), often crowded, thalline margin thin entire. Spores elongato-fusiform, straight or curved or twisted, 3 to 9 septate (‘03 to ‘o5 mm. long, ‘oo5 thick). Gel. hym. blue with iodine. Gran. gon. oblong or reniform (2 mm. long), or sub-globose (1 mm. diam.) Habitat on boughs and stems of Senecio Bedfordii, very rarely on other trees, pros- tanthera and pomaderis. While young the thallus is bright dark- green, the centre stretched smooth, transparent, and shining, as though it were a thin film of green paint. 4. Collema atrum. Wilson, spec. nov. ‘ Thallus black, small (to 134 inch diam.) complicato-squamose, at the circumference lobate, thick, cartilaginous, granulato-corru- gata. Apothecia black or obscurely rufous, or sometimes whitish (diameter 1 mm.), thalline margin whole. Spores ovate or fusiformi-ovate, acuminate at one or both ends. 3 to 4 loculate (‘o18-026 mm. long, ‘oo5—‘o0o6 mm. thick). Paraphyses slender, crowded. Thecz clavate, coloured intense blue with iodine. Habitat on maritime calcareous rocks. 5. Collema leucocarpum. Taylor; var. nov. mznus, Wilson. Much smaller and darker in both thallus and apothecia than the type. Habitat on trees by lake. 6. Leptogium oltvaceum. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus olivaceous, paler beneath, membranacecus, rotundo- lobate, undulate, smooth. Apothecia rufous or fusco-rufous, plane with thin margin. Spores fusiform-ellipsoid (‘o13 mm. long, ‘oo4 thick), 3 to 5 septate with longitudinal divisions. Habitat among mosses on granitic rocks. 4. Leptogium olivaceum ; var. tsidiosum, Wilson. Thallus plumbeo-ccerulescent, tinged here and there with olive, covered more or less with cesious isidia. Sterile. Habitat with type. 8. Leptogium chloromelum. Sw. ; var. nov. Victorianum, Wilson. Thallus like the type described by Nylander, but firmer in THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 63 texture, passim rufo-fuscous, old lobes fusco-furfuraceous, as though denuded of cortex. Apothecia similar to type, but with margin thinly plicate, or tumid, or granulate, or briefly laciniate. Spores ovoideo-fusiform, often acuminate at apices (‘o13—"o17 mm. long, ‘005-006 thick), usually 3, septate, with or without longi- tudinal division of central cells. Habitat on mossy trees and rocks. . 9. Leptogium limbatum. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus plumbeous or cceruleo-plumbeous, passim rufo-fusces- cent, membranaceo dilated, rotundo-lobate, undulate, circumfer- ence reflexed, sinuate, and for the most part adorned with a tumid, minutely squamose fringe, occasionally bullate, bullae crowded _ with spermagones; concolorous beneath, albo-tomentose, but circumference broadly nude. Apothecia pallido-rufous, somewhat convex, large (4 mm. diam.), appressed, with squamose thalline. margin. Habitat on back of trees in sub-alpine localities. Allied to L. inflexum (Nyl.), but thallus lobate and limbate, and the under surface concolorous and less tomentose. 10. Obryzum myriopus. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus cinerascenti-plumbeous or cceruleo-plumbeous, small (i in. diam.), rotundo-lobate, deeply incised, lobes imbricate, margin slightly incurved, upper surface minutely and confusedly rugulose, under surface densely covered with woolly, often fasciculate rhizinze, white or cceruleo-nigricant. Apothecia endo- carpoid, showing externally depressed fuscescent tubercles (‘2 mm. diam.) scattered, here and there crowded. Spores, 8 in asco, ellipsoideo-fusiform (‘o13 mm. long, ‘oo4 thick), amber-coloured with iodine. ~Paraphyses distinct. Granula gonima (‘ors long, ‘o7 thick) binary, minutely granulated or mottled, moniliform or scattered one or two in a cell. Habitat among jungermannias, on bark of trees in shady forest. In Queensland, found by Mr. J. Shirley on rocks, but isidiose and sterile. 11. Myriangium dolichosporum. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus black, small (2-5 mm. broad, 2 mm. or more high), pulvinate, opaque or slightly shining, unequal. Apothecia often nearly covering the thallus and concolorous with it. Epithecium slightly rufescent. Disk plane or concave, attaining a breadth of 1mm. Receptacle elevated or stipitate, stipe sometimes 1 mm. long, tapering downwards ; thalline margin rounded. ‘Thece spheroidal, scattered through the cellular substance of the apo- thecium. Spores 8, colourless, cylindrical, curved, narrowing at each end, and marked with minute gutte down the longi- tudinal axis, ‘o4 mm. long and ‘oo6 mm. broad. Habitat on twigs of Hymenanthera Banksii. 12. Sphinctrina microcephala. Nyl.; var. nov. tenella, Wilson. Thallus probably that of some pertussaria. Apothecia fuscous, shining, stipe long and slender (‘3 mm. high, ‘o5 mm. thick). 64 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. Capitulum turbinato-globose (1 mm. diameter). Exciple pyrenoid. Spores (or mm. long) simple, nigricant, fusiformi-globose or ellipsoid, like those figured by Nylander ; epispore thick, with reddish tinge. Habitat on twigs of Hymenanthera Banksii. 13. Calcium pusiolum. Ach.; var. nov. niveum, Wilson. Thallus snowy white, thick, effuse. Apothecium minute (°5 mm. high), stipe hyaline, upper part black or all fuscous or black, very slender ; sometimes furcate. Capitulum hemispherico-lenticular, black, about ‘25mm. broad, sometimes divided into several lobes, or even separate capitula on divided stipe. Spores pale nigrescent, fusiformi-ellipsoid, simple (-o04—'006 mm. long, *oo2— "0025 mm. broad), flat, so as to seem almost baccillar when — viewed on the side. Paries thick. Gel. hym. with iodine vinous yellow. Habitat on decaying bark of growing eucalyptus. 14. Calicium Victorie. C. Knight, spec. nov. Thallus white or whitish, or cinerascent, more or less distinct, effuse. Apothecia wholly black (‘5-1 mm. high). Capitulum turbinato-lentiform or hemispherico-lentiform (up to ‘25 mm. broad); stipe slender, about ‘1 mm. thick, thicker at base. Spores fuscous, fusiformi-ellipsoid, simple (-oo5— oo8 mm. long, ‘oo2— 003 mm. broad). Paries somewhat thick, and showing a dark outline. Habitat on decaying decorticated eucalyptus. 15. Calicium contortum. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus whitish, very thin. Apothecia all black, smaller than C. Victorie ; stipe contorted. Capitulum hemispherico-lenticular. Spores dilutely nigrescent (‘004 mm. long, ‘oor4—‘o02 mm. broad). Habitat on decorticated decaying eucalyptus. 16. Calicium parvulum. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus white, rather determinate, having the appearance of a thin coat of whitewash. Apothecia all black (‘4 mm. high). Capitulum lentiform (‘16 mm. diameter) ; stipe slender (-o5 mm. thick). Spores simple ellipsoid, dilutely nigrescent. Paries thin, very black. Habitat on decorticated decaying eucalyptus. 17. Calicium flavidum. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus yellow or sulphureous, smooth, nearly shining. Apothecia black, tinged with the thalline colour on the margin and sometimes downwards, robust, attaining 1 mm. in height and - "5mm. in thickness; stipe rather short, thickened upwards. Capitulum globoso-turbinate. Sporal mass black, protruded. Spores fusco-nigrescent, ovoid or sub-fusiformi-ellipsoid, unisep- tate (‘oo6-‘or mm. long, ‘oo3—004 mm. broad), the walls tinged red, the cells fuscescent, containing each one or two nigrescent locules. Habitat on wood of dead eucalyptus. 18. Calicium tricolor. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus sulphureous leproso-granulose. Apothecia black, small, =. THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 65 to 75mm. high; stipe ‘1mm. thick. Capitulum turbinato- globose (*2-"5mm. broad), margin white. Spores fusiformi- ellipsoid, somewhat pointed at each end (‘oo8—‘or2 mm. long, 003-005 mm. broad), uniseptate, somewhat constricted at septum, fuscous with a fusco-nigrescent locule in each cell. Habitat on decaying decorticated eucalyptus. The apothecium is like that of C. cwstum, but the spores are different in shape and colour, and size, and the thallus is altogether unlike. 19. Calicium deforme. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus cinerascent, thin, granulose. Apothecia black, deformed with thalline and other granules, 1mm. high, or rather more. Capitulum turbinato-lentiform attaining a diameter of ‘5 mm., stipe ‘2mm. thick. Sporal mass black, protruded, sometimes extending considerably on one side. Spores fusiformi-ellipsoid, nigrescent, ‘oo6-oo8 mm. long, ‘oo25~—‘004 mm. broad, unisep- tate, septum generally rather indistinct. Habitat on decaying eucalyptus. 20. Calicium nigrum. Scher. ; var. nov. minutum, C. Knight. Thallus obscurely cinereous or black, leprose. Apothecia short (-5 mm. high); stipes stout (‘1-12 mm. thick). Capitulum turbinato- lentiform, disk puinose, *3 mm. broad. Spores nigrescent (-0075 mm. long, ‘oo4 mm. broad), ellipsoid, uniseptate, constricted at middle, a locule in each cell. Habitat on old rails. 21. Calicium subtile. Pers. ; var. nov. diloculare, Wilson. Thallus whitish or cinerascent, thin. Apothecia all black (-8-1 mm. high). Capitulum lentiform or sub-turbinato lentiform (-3-"4 mm. broad), stipe ‘1 mm. thick. Spores fuscescent or fusco- nigrescent, ellipsoid or sub-fusiformi-ellipsoid, bilocular or obso- letely bilocular or simple, no visible septum (‘005-007 mm. long, ‘002-"003 mm. broad). Paries somewhat thick. MHabitat on decaying eucalyptus. 22. Calicium gracillimum. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus a whitish spot. Apothecia all black (‘8 mm. high). Stipe very slender, about ‘o6 mm. thick. Capitulum minute (‘1 mm. broad), turbinato-lentiform. Spores ellipsoid or fusiformi- ellipsoid, uniseptate (about ‘oot—‘ooz mm. long, ‘ooo6—‘oor mm. broad). Habitat on decaying decorticated musk-tree. 23. Calicium roseo-albidum. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus roseo-albescent, thick, minutely cancellate, chryso- gonimic. Apothecia minute, wholly black. Capitulum lenticular (‘2 mm. broad). Stipe slender (7mm. high, -o6 broad.) Spores nigrescent, oblong or oblongo-ellipsoid (‘oo5 mm. or more in length, “002-003 mm. broad), apices roundish, uniseptate. Habitat on decaying decorticated eucalyptus, a great portion of which it covers with a light rosy tint, When the thallus is bruised it 66 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. it becomes a deep yellow from exposure of the chrysogonimic layer. 24. Contocybe rhodocephala. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus scanty, obscurely virescent, leprose, or none. Apothecia on stipe fuscous or black pruinose (to -2 mm. high, -2 mm. thick), sometimes forked, or two partly coalescent. Capitulum globose, pale rose or pale flesh, rarely whitish. Spores very numerous, massed together, colourless, ellipsoid or oblongo-ellipsoid, 003-"006 mm. long, ‘oo15 mm. broad, bilocular or placodine or uniseptate. Paries thick. Paraphyses numerous, distinct. Habitat on dead bark of decaying trees in thick scrub. This species is remarkable for the form of its spores. All the species of this genus hitherto described have spherical spores without septa. 25. Contocybe citriocephela. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus white, thin. Apothecia minute. Stipe black, slender, to ‘rt mm. high, ‘o6 mm. thick. Capitulum greenish yellow, turbinate, at length globose, to 2 mm. diameter. When denuded of the sporal mass it is fuscous and turbinate. Spores colourless or dilutely yellow, briefly oblongo-ellipsoid or spheroidal (‘o2-04 mm. long, ‘o2—‘o3 mm. thick). Habitat on decaying tree and on dead bark of tree near permanent water. 26. Trachylia lecanorina. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus cinerascent, verruculose, passim verruco sorediate. Apothecia to *5 mm. wide, crowded, elevated in thalline verrucee, sporal mass abundant, often much protruded, and conjoining with that from neighbouring apothecia. Spores fusco nigricant or nigrescent or nearly colourless ; ellipsoid, uniseptate (-or—"o2 mm. long, ‘oo6—‘or mm. broad). Gonidia numerous and of moderate size. Habitat on old eucalyptus rails and posts. This plant bears at first sight a great resemblance to Lecanora atra, for a rubbed specimen of which it was at first mistaken. It is more lecanoroid than the rest of the genus. 24. Trachylia viridilocularts. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus obscurely cinerascent. Apothecia wholly black, slightly elevated, 3 mm. high, *3 mm. broad. Sporal mass abundant. Spores nigricant or virescenti-nigricant, or when immature fuscous, irregularly illipsoid, uniseptate, one or occasionally two locules in each cell, locule often bottle-green. Gonidia round or ellipsoid, with or without paries (‘(o0o2—‘or1 mm. diam.) Habitat on old sawn eucalyptus rails, associated with Calcium nigrum, var. minutum, the Calzccuwm on the more decayed horizontal face of the squared rail and the Z7achylia on the perpendicular face. 28. Trachylia emergens. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus white or whitish or cinerascent, thin, smooth, almost shining. Apothecia, when young, apparently emerging from THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 67 between the fibres of the timber, scarcely ever rising above the thallus, breadth up to '5 mm. Sporal mass black. Spores fusco-nigricant, conglutinated in glomerules, ellipsoid, about ‘oo5 mm. long, ‘003 mm. mm. broad, but very various in size, uniseptate, with locule in each cell. Gonidia ‘oz mm., oblongo- spherical. Habitat on decaying eucalyptus rails in sub-alpine localities. Found also on Mt. Lofty, S.A. 29. ZLrachylia exigna. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus cinerascent, effuse. Apothecia partly sunk in the thallus, small, very slightly elevated, disk plane or convex. Spores fusiformi-ellipsoid, nigrescent, uniseptate, about ‘oo8 mm. long, ‘003 mm. broad. Habitat on old eucalyptus rails. 30. Lrachylia Victoriana. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus cinerascent, thin, effuse. Apothecia typically sessile, often briefly stipitate, black, disk often sulphureo-pruinose, breadth to*4 mm. Spores fuscous, oblongo-ellipsoid (‘o05-"006 mm.) or nigricant, ellipsoid, narrower at apices and rather smaller, uniseptate, with paler loculi in each cell. The fuscous colour is Owing, as usual, to a coat, which comes off under rough usage, leaving the spore nigricant. I find it difficult to decide whether this is a Zvachylia or a Calicium (to be called percurtum), or whether these are both constantly associated, with similar spores. Very common on old eucalyptus rails in many parts of Victoria. 31. Leomyces fusco-carnea. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus 2 to 3 in. in diameter, pallid, grannulose, gran- nules sometimes depressed. Apothecia fusco-carneous, pruinose (1-2 mm. broad), convex, margined by the hypothecium ; stipes white, nude ; short or subsessile, t mm. or less in height. Thallus and apothecia when touched with hydrate of potash shew yellow and then deep blood-red, which is permanent. Habitat on clay. This species is allied to B. Rufus. 32. Cladonia cartosa. Flk. ; var. diffissa, Wilson Thallus of squamee light green, minute, crenate, curled up, displaying the white under surface. Podetia squamulose, split at the apex into several branches, which, with the rest of the podetia lose the cortex here and there and show the filamentous substance underneath costate and eroso-cancellato. Sometimes the whole podetium is split up into a sort of network. Apothe- cium of paler or darker rufous, on each branch of podetium. Habitat on earth or decaying tree sturaps. Allied, perhaps, too closely to C. cariosa, of which it may possibly be a form. The chemical reaction is uncertain, generally K + C —. 33. Cladonia hastata. Wilson, spec. nov. Squamee at foot of podetia small, evanescent. Podetia brown, verruculose, smooth, somewhat shining, sparingly divided at base, rarely above, slender, fragile, erect, scarcely curved, rising to 68 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 3 in. in height and coming to a sharp point at the apex. Apothecia unknown. Found in company with C. /ragillima (Krplhb.), of which it may be a form, as that seems to be allied to C. pungens. 34. Phyllis melacarpa. Wilson, gen. et spec. nov. Thallus minute (2-3 mm. long, :2 broad), cinereous, but green when fresh, white below, laciniato-squamose, convex on both sur- faces, irregularly multifid, the apices of the lower lacinize crenate, divided, recurved, the ultimate lacinze more or less terete. Apothecia cephaloid, black, somewhat smooth and shining, regular and hemispherical or tubercularly difformed (attaining a diameter of fully 1 mm.), terminal on the lower thalline lacinize, which then form short, finely fistulose podetia. Spores 8, in asco, colourless, simple, ovato-ellipsoid (‘oo6—‘008 mm. long, ‘oo4—"005 thick), con- taining often one to three globules. Paraphyses indistinct, fus- cescent, apices fuscous (.o04—005 mm. thick). Gel. hym. blue with iodine. (Spermatia bacillar, inrcassate at one apex)? Habitat on tree trunks and decaying logs in sub-alpine localities. The squamee of the thallus are generally very closely imbricated, showing scarcely more than the terete apices and the round, black apothecia, half-buried among them. ‘The thallus is composed of laxly-interwoven filaments, both simple and ramose (‘o02-"005 mm. thick), with gonidia light green, spherical or oblong (‘oo5- ‘o17 mm. diam.), gathered into groups close to the upper surface of the thallus. This plant is allied to the Cladonias by the texture and general appearance of the thallus, the cephaloid form of the apothecia, and the form and colour of the spores, but it is separated from that genus by the double convexity of the thallus, becoming at the apices almost cylindrical, together with the colour and situa- tion of the apothecia and the character of the paraphyses ; which compel the formation of a new genus, which I venture to call Phyllis, from the leafy nature of the plant, by which it stands alone among the Cladodei. The distinguishing marks of the new genus are: Thallus squamulose, apothecia black, subterminal, paraphyses indistinct. Its place is between Cladina and Pycno- thelia in Nylander’s arrangement. 35. Pilophoron conglomeratum. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus olivaceous—green when fresh—effuse isidioso-granulate ; podetia sub-cylindrical, longitudinally costate or lacunose, verru- coso granulate, passim isidiose (‘20 mm. high, 1°5 mm.thick), simple or divided into two or four branches at apex. Apothecia fuscous- black, conglomerate (‘4 mm. diam.), spores ellipsoideo-fusiform, colourless, simple (‘o1 mm. long, ‘003 thick). Hypothecium fuscous. Paraphyses distinct, conglutinated, fuscescent, apices fuscous. Gel. hym. with iodine intensely blue. Habitat on mossy trunks of dead trees in sub-alpine localities. THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 69 36. Ramalina brevis. Wilson spec. nov. Thallus pallido-glaucescent, opaque, applanate, short (to 1% in. long and 2 in. broad), lacerato divided, sometimes lacerato com- plicate. Apothecia flavo-pallid, large (to to mm. diam ), recep- tacle podicellate, margin more or less incurved. Sometimes the thallus is wholly covered on one side with apothecia. , The whole appear ance of the typical plant readily distinguishes this species from all others of the genus. 37. Ramalina unilateralis. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus small (about 8 mm. long), irregularly multifid and entangled (base 2 mm. broad), apices finely divided, curled up and displaying the under surface white, chiefly eroded and sorediate, upper surface sulphureous, cartilaginous, undulate, smooth, nearly shining, K-C-—. Apothecia not seen. Habitat on small twigs of Bursaria spinosa near sea. 38. Parmelia sub-cerulea. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus bluish-white margined with black line, lobato-laciniate, lobes rotundo-crenate, centre and nearly all upper surface covered with a dark isidium, under surface smooth black, but pale fuscous near margin. Med. K yellow, then very deep blood-red. Apothecia fusco-rufous, small, plane or irregularly concave, thalline margin thin. Habitat on rocks—granite, sandstone, or basalt. 39. Parmelia albata. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus white, with a slight ccerulean tinge, opaque, more or less broadly laciniato-lobate, highly undulate and imbricate, with patches of soredia here and there, especially on undulations. Under surface white, covered with concolorons or blue tomentose rhizine. Med. K yellow C—. Apothecia not seen. Habitat on mossy rocks. 40. Parmelia colpodes. Ach. ; var. spheroidispora, Wilson. Differs from the type as described in Nylander’s Syn. Meth. only by the spheroidal form of the spores, and by their size. Nylander gives “long circa ‘0025, cras. circa‘oor mm.” This variety is about ‘oo5 mm. long and ‘oo4 thick. 41. Theloschistes velifer. Wilson, spec. nov. Thallus minute (half an inch or less), social, yellow or in the sun orange, narrowly evernizeform, laciniz convex, beneath white, subcanaliculate, margined by concolorous ciliz ; apices lobate, sub-ascending, elongate, much broadened and inflated, the lower cortex and the medulla often absent, exposing the green or yellow gonidia. Apothecia orange-red, moderate, (diam. 1 to 2 mm.), at length sub-cephaloid, stipitate, risimg 1 to 2 m.m. from the base of the apicular lobe. Spores uncoloured, ellipsoid (‘oo8—or mm. long), placodine. Habitat on bark of trees and bushes near streams and in gardens. It prefers the furcations of the small twigs of Hymenanthera Banksi, and often covers the whole side ofabush. The fruit is rather rare. 70 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. THE BIRDS OF MELTON. By G. A. KEARTLAND. (Read before the Field Naturalists’ Qlub of Victoria, 14th Jan., 7889.) I nave tried nearly every district around Melbourne which can be visited in one day for birds, and often return without noting any but the most commonplace kinds. It was therefore extremely gratifying to me, that, when I decided to devote my attention to Melton, I ascertained from the station-master that I would see nothing unless I went down the creek and along the Werribee River. He said everybody went that way. I mildly suggested that I would try a north-west course, when he told me to“ Please yourself, but nobody ever goes that way.” This was just what I wanted, and I pleased myself. On crossing the railway line I had scarcely entered the timber before three little Red-rumped Parrakeets came overhead. but were soon lost to view. The next object of interest was a White-eyed Crow’s nest ina tall box tree. Passing behind the racecourse, a fine hunting ground is met with. Plenty of tall box trees, many of which are rung, ‘sheoak, wattle, ti-tree, and scrub, with large quantities of dead wood on the ground. This patch swarms with insectivorous birds, and they all seemed extremely sociable except the Southern Stone Plover. Tree- creepers often travelled up the trunk of a tree close to my side. Here the funny antics of the Pomatostomus had scarcely engaged my attention when a White-shouldered Campephaga commenced a short dispute with a White-throated Thickhead. A Black-cheeked Falcon next flashed through the scrub, and then the place seemed suddenly alive with birds, many of which I had not previously noted in the district. Whether they were afraid of the hawk, or expressing joy at seeing him fall a victim to my gun, I cannot say, but for some minutes it was quite perplex- ing which way to look. The Garrulous Honeyeater was, of course, loudest in his notes, while the little White-shafted Fantail was most energetic in fluttering around me, often within a yard of my face. Standing on a limb close by, with his eyes wide open, was an old Podargus staring at me as though I was an intruder in his domain. Then as I walked forward the pretty Spotted-sided Finch, with his showy tail, flew off in company with the Red-eye- browed Finch. On the margin of the timber the Sordid Wood- swallow flew about in company with his cousin the White-eye- browed Wood-swallow. I mention this, as I have never seen these two birds in company before, the first-named being a permanent resident with us, while the latter is only an occasional visitor. On emerging into the open country I saw a large female Goshawk perched on a tree, and, in endeavouring to approach it, I disturbed a fine pair of Chestnut-coloured Sheldrakes which were feeding near the fence. In the open country several flocks THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 71 of Black-breasted Plover were met with, a number of which had the misfortune t> fall into my basket, and the skin of one is here this evening. I soon found my way to the farm of Mr. Raleigh, a gentleman who devotes his attention to hay growing and dairying. After partaking of the hospitality of the homestead, I madea start across a dry creek, accompanied by Mr. Chas. Raleigh, who was most energetic in providing some good hare and rabbit shooting. We had just entered the timber when a Hooded Robin claimed attention. On firing at a rabbit, I disturbed a large flock of the White-winged Chough, whose mournful note was heard for some time. Following up the creek for a short distance several fine Bronzewing Pigeons were disturbed. As I had previously found the nest of these birds with a helpless, shapeless young one in it, they were not interfered with. In the scrub and forest small birds of many kinds were numerous. Of honeyeaters, the Spine- bill, Blackthroat, New Holland, Warty-face, Wattle Bird, White- plumed, &c., were noted. On a ti-tree bush I found nests of the Spotted-sided Finch and the little Firetail within two feet of each other. There was no doubt about the matter, as I saw both birds enter their domiciles. I was surprised to find the latter birds breeding so late in the season, and as I found five more of their nests I examined their structure and contents. No. 1 was composed of grass and only half built, containing one egg. No. 2 was fully built, but not lined, and contained two eggs. No. 3 was built, partly lined, and contained three eggs. No. 4 was finished, well lined with feathers and rabbit fur, and contained five eggs nearly hatched. You will thus observe that these birds appear to start house-keeping on a kind of time-payment principle I have never noticed in any other locality. All the nests I have seen in the Heidelberg district, where these birds are very numerous, were lined before any eggs were laid. , After wandering about the paddocks for an hour or two we made a.turn for home across a paddock where I made a fine col- lection of Painted, Brown, and Stubble Quail in June last, in the hope of finding these birds busy with family cares, but alas ! the dryness of the season seems to have driven them all away and where the Land Rail might be seen in scores last spring you could not find a solitary bird now. During the day I only saw one pair of Laughing Jackasses, and killed two tiger snakes. This latter was a surprise to me, as the country crossed appeared to be a perfect paradise for reptiles. My friend was surprised that I found any at all. He says they very seldom see a snake of any kind whatever, but when they do they are generally large ones. On recrossing the creek, I saw a large domestic cat apparently on very good terms with some rabbits, and when the latter were 72 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. scared at our approach the cat and one rabbit disappeared down the same burrow. In the dead timber the great Southern Stone Plover were very numerous, and along the creek we found one paddock where phosphorized oats had been laid to poison the rabbits, but opossums and hares were more frequently found dead than the intended victims. Perched on some dead tree or soaring over- head, I noticed four Eaglehawks and two Whistling Eagles, while smaller hawks were very numerous. I was informed that when- ever poison is laid for the rabbits these birds invariably put in an appearance, and whenever a sick rabbit makes himself visible he is speedily pounced upon by them, while his more robust brother is seen scampering off unmolested. After again partaking of the hospitality of Mr. Raleigh, I re- traced my steps towards the railway station, and in the scrub passed through on my way out, I noticed about a dozen nests previously passed by, but as they were almost all occupied by young birds I did not disturb them, but pushed on to the railway station, having travelled about twelve miles and noted sixty-three different kinds of birds. A complete list is appeaded, but not sufficiently interesting to occupy the time of the meeting in read- ing. I would strongly recommend this district to the attention of our ornithologists. Our entomologists will find much to interest them also, but botanists had better give it a wide berth, as rabbits and sheep between them seemed to have cleared out all the in- teresting little plants found in other localities. The following is a list of the birds noticed by me in the Melton district :—Black Duck, Chestnut-coloured Sheldrake, Maned Goose: Pectoral Rail, Nankeen Night Heron, Black-breasted Plover, Great Stone Plover, Painted, “‘ Pectoral,”’and Swamp Quail: Bronzewing Pigeons: Rosella, King Lory, Swift Lorikeet, Red- rumped Parrakeet, Blue Mountain Parrot, Musk Parrot: Fantail, Pallid, and Bronze Cuckoo: Pomatostomus, New Holland, Warty-faced, Spine Bill, Garrulous, White-plumed, Wattle Bird, Black-throated Honeyeaters: White-eyed Crow, White-winged Chough: Brown Tree Creeper, White-throated Tree Creeper : Spotted-sided and Red-eyebrowed Finches : Australian Pipit, Little Grass Bird, Chestnut-rumped Acanthiza, Little Brown Acanthiza, White-fronted Ephthianura, Superb Warbler, Hooded, Flame- and Yellow-breasted Robins, White-shafted Fantail, Black Fantail, Frontal Shrike-tit, Harmonious Shrike Thrush, White-throated Thickhead, Black-faced Grauculus, White-shouldered Campe- phaga: Pied Grallina, Sooty Crow-Shrike, White-backed Crow- Shrike, Grey Crow-Shrike : 2 Pardalotes, Sordid and White-eye- browed Wood Swallows: Sacred Kingfisher, Great Brown King- fisher: Welcome and Tree Swallows: Swifts: Podargus : Gos- hawk, Nankeen Kestrel, Brown Hawk, Black-cheeked Falcon, Whistling Eagle, Wedge-taiJled Eagle. : "a of ‘Pictovis. President : SEIN, aloe SW UR CU AIS) SOWIE See Stor AR ARR A RR RR rr f (Po members 5 ital ion 6s. 6d., post free. Sine of the numbers from the commencement, January, 1884, can be obtained fone the Hon. Sec, Mr. F. G. A. Barnard, Kew, at sixpence each; or in sets. Vol. I. ; 1884-85), 16 numbers, 7s. 6d.; Vol. II. (1885-86), 12 numbers, 6s.; Vol. IIT. Beeb 87) Dy 12 Bombers, Gs.; Vol. V. (1888-89), 12 numbers, 6s.; each set with title- THIS SPACE TO LET. oasis “« REIMS, ® ® ‘ r SS CUTAN RICAN ‘Has the Largest Sale of any Champagne. SS & SS Sole Agents for Mictoria: ADOLPH JOSKE, BEST & CO., 291 Little Collins Street, Melbourne. FELTON, GRIMWADE &C0., Wholesale Arng Merchants, MANUFACTURING CHEMISTS, IMPORTERS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION OF MICROSCOPES, MICROSCOPICAL ACCESSORIES, CALVANIC BATTERIES, GHEMIGAL AND SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS, &¢., &c. Pe a SUPERIOR STUDENTS’ MICROSCOPES. SPP BECK’S “STAR” MONOCULAR MICROSCOPE, with rack and pinion coarse adjust- ment, iris diaphragm, double mirror, fine adjustment by screw, I eye-piece, 1 in. and Yin. objective, in case, L4 r2s, 6d, e BECK’S “ECONOMIC” MICROSCOPES, from 47 6s. to #11 IIs. BECK’S “POPULAR” MICROSCOPES, from £12 ss. to £27 55. BECK’S “NATIONAL” MICROSCOPES, from £12 5s. to £38 tos. Particulars of various other Microscopes, by best English and Foreign Makers, may be had on application. 10><>—oe—_—— 342—6 LITTLE FLINDERS ST., MELBOURNE. SEPLEMBER, 1889. The Author of each article is rea enenblé for the facts and opinions -: = he oe = mae wy SS Ss SO VO EU Se ae CONTENTS. = PAGE — Tue Frerp Naruraists’ CLUB OF Vicrorta fete oe 73 _AN ADDITIONAL Lisr oF LicHENS NEw TO VIcTORIA. By Rev. F. R. M. Witson Pe a ace et 77 A Hovtpay EXCURSION TO Norrie ‘Mrrgoo, By D. Best ... 77 _Nores ON THE BuTrerFLtEes OF gE By F. G. A, BARNARD... pies ee ae 4a an 83 SON PN ANAS NANOS ER EIS ON FINDS AS ASR NEN ANE NON NAN I NONF SNA RON ONANIe _ DEScRIPION OF A New Cuoritana. By BARON VON -Muetirr, K. C.M.G., M. And PasD., F.R.S. ve 87 SN eRe N SE a ee SIXPENCE. B oo: : Agents for Guvope; 2 : DULAU & CO., 37 Scho Square, London. . Melbourne : : S ay. ALKER, MAY wen Os, PRINTERS, 9 MACKILLOP STREET ‘my Qu is oa J. ATT (Twenty Years with PAUL THOMAS), IMPORTER AND MANUFACTURER OF - FIRST-CLASS BOOTS anno SHOES, gO Og OOO gee a a anata eae CASH PRICES. NAR RAR RR RRR RRR THE QUEEN for LADIES. The most comfortable Boots and Shoes made. WIDE TOES, LOW HEELS. 67 (old No. 41) SWANSTON STREET (Between Flinders Lane and Collins Street), And at THE BON MARCHE BOOT CO., 596 COLLINS ST. (Near Spencer Street), t MELBOURNE. & THIS SPACE TO LET. THE Mictorian Maturalist. Vou. VI.—No. 5. SEPTEMBER, 1889. No. 69. St inka A THE FIELD NATURALISTS’ CLUB OF VICTORIA. THE monthly meeting of the club was held at the Royal Society’s - Hall on Monday evening, 8th July, 1889. Mr. C. A. Topp, M.A., LL.B., F.L.S., a vice-president, occupied _ the chair, and about 60 members and visitors were present. A letter was read from the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, announcing that the next meeting would commence in Melbourne on Tuesday, 7th January, 1890 ; also enclosing a list of the presidents, vice-presidents, and secretaries of the various sections. - The hon. librarian reported the receipt of the - following donations to the library :—“ Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria” (new series), vol. 1, from the society; ‘“ Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia,” vol. xi., 1837-88, from the society; “Proceedings of Royal Society of Queensland,” vol, vi., parts 2 and 3, from the society; and “ Journal of Pharmacy,” June 18809. The hon. secretary reported that a party of sie! six members had visited the National Museum on Saturday, 15th June, and spent an interesting afternoon there. On a ballot being taken, Mrs. M. Follett, Messrs. E. Baines, L. R. Chamberlain, and T. A. Forbes-Leith were duly elected members of the club. Nominations were received for office-bearers for the year 1889-90, the election to take place at the August meeting. Mr. F. G. A. Barnard gave notice that he would move, at the annual meeting, that the word “ August,” in Rule 16, be altered tout July.” Mr. A. J. Campbell gave notice that he would move, at the annual meeting, that Professor M‘Coy’s name be added to the list of patrons of the club. _ Mr. A. J. Campbell promised a paper, “ Notes from Malden Island,” for a future meeting. ¥? eh ae ee ee ee ee ee Cee ee I Re ee a PAPERS READ. 1. By Mr. E. M. Cornwall, entitled “On Collecting near Home,” In the absence of the author this was read by Mr. H, 74 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. Kendall, and proved very interesting. It was offered in order to refute the statement frequently made that the collecting grounds near Melbourne are worked out. The author briefly glanced at the various localities known to have been formerly very productive, and noted what might still be got there, confining his remarks, however, principally to birds. The paper gave rise to a discussion which elicited some interesting information from the various speakers, who generally endorsed the writer’s remarks. 2. By Mr. A. J. Campbell, entitled “A Basket of Fish.” The author briefly noted the various species of fish, some 30 or 35 in number, usually met with at the sales at the Melbourne Fish Market, and exhibited about 24 species in illustration of his remarks, and offered some suggestions as to why fish are such scarce articles of food in Melbourne. The paper evoked some remarks from several members, who mentioned several fish omitted by the author. NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. Mr. H. T. Tisdall, F.L.S., read a short note on a curious species of fungus, apparently related to the genus Cordyceps, found growing on an ant at Cheltenham, by Mr. C. French, F.LS., and exhibited an enlarged drawing of the specimen, the original having been sent to England for identification. Mr. D. Best read a note by Mr. C. French, F.L.S., on.a rare longicorn beetle, Cereyidion horrens, taken for the first time in Victoria by himself during the recent expedition to East Gippsland. The following were the principal exhibits of the evening. By Mr. F. G. A. Barnard-—Hymenopterous insects, from Mossman River, North Queensland. By Mr. A. J. Campbell—2q species of marketable fish, in illustration of his paper. By Mr. C. French, F.L.S.—Longicorn beetle, Ceregidion, horrens, from St. Patrick’s River, East Gippsland (new for Victoria). Drawing, by Mr. H. T. Tisdall, F.L.S., of singular fungus ; and drawings of destructive Victorian insects, by Mr. E. Anderson. By Mr. C. French, jun.— Eggs of Black-tailed Parrakeet, Chestnut-eared Finch, Hooded Robin, Graceful Honey-eater, and Rufous-headed Grass Warbler, Victoria ; Pale-headed Parrakeet, New South Wales; and Long- tailed Superb Warbler, Tasmania. By Mr. R. Hall—Birds from Lake Boga, Swan Hill district. By Mr. G. A. Keartland— Collection of birds’ eggs from King Island ; eggs of Boa Constrictor and Black Python. By Baron F. von Mueller, K.C.M.G.—100 sections of different woods, including many Australian ; advance proofs of new edition of “ Census of Australian Plants.” By Mr. W. Scott—Fossils from Bairnsdale. By Mr. J. Searle—Tiger Beetles (Cicindela ypsilon), from Lakes’ Entrance; seeds of THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 75 Cabbage-tree Palm (Livistona australis), from Cabbage Tree Creek, East Gippsland. _ After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. The ninth annual meeting of the club was held at the Royal Society’s Hall on Monday evening, 12th August, 1889. The president, Mr. A. H. S. Lucas, M.A., B.Sc., occupied the. chair, and about 85 members and visitors were present. A letter was read from Col. Legge, R.A., Hobart, desiring the club to urge the Victorian Government to include the Cape Barren Goose in the list of protected birds. The mutter was referred to the committee for consideration and re ort. An interesting account of the club excursion to Sandringham on Saturday, 13th July, was furnished by Mr. C. French, F.L.S., who reported that there had been a very good attendance, but as the season was yet early for flowering plants, the members’ collections were not very extensive. The hon. librarian acknowledged the receipt of the following donations to the library: — “Proceedings of Zoological and Acclimatisation Society of Victoria,” vols. i. and ii, from Baron F. von Mueller, K.C.M.G.; “ Quarterly Mining Reports,” March 1889, from the Mining Department; “ Report of Trustees of Australian Museum, Sydney,” for 1888, from the Trustees ; “‘ Proceedings of Royal Society of Queensland,” vol. vi., part 4, also “Report of Annual Meeting,” 1889, from the society ; “Handbook of Australian Association, Sydney,” 1888, from Mr. F. G. A. Barnard ; and “ Journal of Pharmacy,” July, 1889. On a ballot being taken, Miss H. Paul, Mr. S. Kennon, and Mr. H. V. Smith were duly elected members of the club. ANNUAL REPORT. The hon. secretary read the ninth annual report, which will be printed and distributed to the members as soon as possible. It congratulated the members on the continued prosperity of the Club. Subscriptions for the year 1888-89 were received from 187 members, of whom 18 were ladies and 6 juniors. Twenty- three papers, dealing with various branches of natural history. had been read. The exhibition of wild flowers and annual conversazione had been again successful and well attended. The excursions had been fairly successful, and an expedition to East Gippsland had been carried out. The finances of the club were in an improved condition, though the expenses of the club’s journal were very heavy. The committee suggested that certain alterations should. be made in the wild-flower exhibition and conversazioné, SO as to somewhat lessen their expense and the hard’ work they entail on a few of the members, 76 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. The report was adopted on the motion of Messrs. D. Le Souéf and C. Frost. The balance-sheet showed that the receipts for the year had been £175 16s. 6d., and the expenditure £162 14s., thus adding 413 28s. 6d. to the credit balance of the club, which now amounts to £63 12s. The balance-sheet was adopted, on the motion of Messrs. D. Le Souef and J. H. Gatliff. OFFICE-BEARERS, 1889-90. The following office-bearers for 1889-90 were duly elected :— President, Mr. C. A. Topp, M.A., LL.B., F.L.S. ; vice-presidents, Professor W. Baldwin Spencer, B.A., and Mr. H. T. Tisdall, F.L.S. ; hon. treasurer, Mr. D. Best ; hon. librarian, Mr. R. Hall ; hon. secretary, Mr. F. G. A. Barnard; hon. assistant secretary, Mr. G. Coghill. The ballot for five members of committee resulted in Messrs. A. Dendy, M.Sc., C. French, F.L.S., C. Frost, A. H.-S. Lucas, M.A., B.Sc., and F. Wisewould being elected. Votes of thanks were unanimously accorded to the retiring office-bearers for their services during the past year, and to Mr. A. H. S. Lucas, M.A., for his services as editor of the Waturalist. On the motion of Messrs. C. Frost and J. H. Gatliff, rule 16 was altered so that the annual meeting will in future take place in June instead of August. Mr. A. J. Campbell’s notice of motion, that Professor M‘Coy’s name be added to list of patrons, was adopted. The Rev. F. R. M. Wilson brought ‘forward a series of suggestions for the alteration of the name and constitution of the club, but the matter was postponed until next meeting on account of the lateness of the hour. The following were the principal exhibits of the evening :—By Mr. A. Coles.—Orange-fronted Ephthianura and Tricolored Ephthianura, pair of Orange Cowries. By Mr. H. B. Coles.— Eggs of Lyre-bird and Australian Bustard. By Mr. C. French.— A live Copperhead Snake. By Mr. C. H. French, jun.—Eggs of Tasmanian Grauculus, Tasmania; Black-headed Diamond Bird, New South Wales; Black-faced Grauculus, Bee-eater, Allied Diamond Bird, and Short-billed Sericornis, Victoria. By Mr. G. French.—Spring flowers from Cheltenham. By Mrs. Flatow.— Polyzoa, &c., from Warrnambool. By Mr. R. Hall.—Red-capped Dottrel, Hooded Dottrel, Banded Stilt, Broad-billed Prion, Marsh Tringa, Bass’ Strait Tern, and Marsh Tern. By Mr. E. H. Hennell. —Gold from Boxing Reef, Steiglitz ; tin ore from Koetong, Upper Murray, and oxide of tin from Corner Inlet and King Island. By Mr. G. A. Keartland.—Nine species of parrots. By Mr. T. A. Forbes-Leith.— Kingfishers from Ceylon, the Red and Magnificent. THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 17 Birds of Paradise from New Guinea ; ethnological photographs from India. By Mrs. W. Martin.—Drawings of 200 species of Victorian Fungi, including eleven new to science. By Mrs. R. Simson.—A Pencil-tailed Rat, two Snakes, also Worm Snake. By Rev. F. R. M. Wilson. —Twenty species and varieties of lichens new to Victoria. After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. AN ADDITIONAL LIST OF LICHENS NEW TO VICTORIA. By Rev. F. R. M. WILson. (Exhibited at the Fidd Naturalists Club, 12th August, 1889.) Collema plumbeum, sp. nov., Wilson Myriangium Duricei, Mnt. and Berk. Calicium chrysocephalum, Ach. ; var. filare, Ach. Calicium pusiolum, Ach. ; var. nov., niveum, Wilson Calicium parvulum, sp. nov., Wilson Calicium contortum, sp. nov., Wilson Calicium piestosporum, sp. nov., Wilson Calicium subtile, Pers. ; var. nov., biloculare, Wilson Caiicium subtile, Pers. ; var. nov., capillare, Wilson Calicium piperatum, sp. nov., Wilson Calicium deforme, sp. nov., Wilson Calicium obovatum, sp. noy., Wilson Calicium quercinum, Pers. ; var. nov., bulbosum, Wilson Calicium chryscomitres, sp. nov., Wilson Calicium roscidum, FIk. ; var. nov., eucalypti, Wilson Calicium roseo-albidum, sp. nov., Wilson Calicium flavidum, sp. nov., Wilson Coniocybe atriocephala, sp. nov., Wilson Coniocybe ochrocephala, sp. nov., Wilson Trachylia Victoriana, sp. nov., Wilson. A HOLIDAY EXCURSION TO NORTH MIRBOO. By D. BEst. (Read before the Field Naturalists’ Club, 8th April, 1889.) WE have always been lovers of the scenery of Gippsland, and when the Club excursion to the most easterly portion of that district was finally resolved upon, we hoped we might be enabled to accompany it. To our great regret and disappointment, how- ever, we were unable to do so, but determined to recompense ourselves for the loss by a visit to some of its beautiful fern gullies on the first occasion when we should have a few days at our 78 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. disposal. These few days came to us immediately after Christmas, and a short survey of the railway map soon decided us upon spending them at North Mirboo, firstly, because we had never been there before, and secondly, to ascertain ifthe district would justify future visits. North Mirboo is situated some 20 miles south of Morwell, which itself is 89 miles from Melbourne, on the main Gippsland railway line. The morning of Friday, 28th December, saw us at the station in ample time to catch the 7.50 train, by which also some members of the Croajingolong party were travelling, so that we had the pleasure of their company for a little over 3 hours. Parting regretfully from them at Morwell, we stay here for 20 minutes, resuming our seats in a train composed of several trucks, and one carriage, in which, the carriage, not the trucks, all the passengers had to be accommodated, and although the “ all” was not a great number, still it was sufficiently so to render the journey by n> means so agreeable as it might have been, the warm weather rendering the inside atmosphere exceedingly close and unpleasant. However, a little over an hour’s travelling brings us to our destination, and, upon alighting, the first question we ask ourselves is, Does the appearance of the country meet our approval and expectations ? which we answer in the affirmative ; and, our second, Which is the best of the three hotel the places supports for us to bestow our patronage upon? ‘The station- master being appealed to, and, having fairly enough declined to express an opinion, as he might by so doing give offence to the proprietors of the two he did not recommend, the toss up of a penny decided us to give a trial to the nearest, the Commercial, and we had no reason to regret the result of our toss-up, as the accommodation we received, although not luxurious, possessed the merits of wholesomeness and cleanliness. Having secured rooms, partaken of some needful refreshment, and indulged in that universal soother—a pipe—we entered into friendly converse with the landlord as to the road we should take for our afternoon’s walk, and, having ascertained that there were several leading from the township, we selected the one locally known as the Coast-road. North Mirboo, we may here remark, consists, as do so many other railway townships, of one principal street facing the station, and owes its prosperity to its extensive timber trade. The good timber is, of course, being rapidly worked out, and then North Mirboo will have to look to other resources which will, no doubt, be found in produce and stock, for both of which the country is admirably adapted. Along this road, which rises gently for a considerable distance, we proceed about three miles, but were much disappointed and disgusted in noticing how great a quantity of the timber had been killed, thereby also destroying the many beautiful ferns and fern gullies THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 79 with which the whole district must previously have abounded It is very regrettable that so few of the selectors in the colony have any romance or love of the picturesque in their natures, and although this is, perhaps, not to be much wondered at, consider- ing the hard nature of the lives they mostly have to lead, still we think there should have been, and still ought to be, some restriction as to the amount of destruction they are at liberty to work on their holdings. Had some restriction been enforced, the selector would thereby have sustained no loss, and many perfect little gems of beauty would have been preserved to please and gratify this and future generations. As showing how utterly objectless and reckless are many of these destructions, we may mention one large paddock, which had evidently been several times burned to destroy the timber and scrub, with the result that only some two or three miserable-looking tree ferns were left to struggle for existence, whilst the rest of the land was given over to the growth of senecio, whose yellow flowers covered it as with a carpet, and which certainly did not afford a too liberal susten- ance to the five or six horses we observed on it. ‘The fact is, Gippsland land requires to be continually looked after and worked, as the natural vegetation is so vigorous that it soon kills off all interlopers and resumes its own undisputed sway. In the course of another year or two this would be the case with the paddock mentioned, and senecio would no more be known in it, but alas! it will not, we fear, have this chance of re-asserting itself. Another circumstance struck us with painful effect, and this was the fact that the “ Cockney” sportsman had evidently been lately about here, and been about, too, in pretty considerable numbers. Scarcely a bird of any kind was to be seen, and to those of our members and others who are fond of a country excur- sion we need scarcely say that their absence does away with fully one-half of the pleasure one looks for. It is on such occasions that we are tempted to wish we were an autocrat, so that we might inflict summary chastisement on all those ruffians—we decline to apply any milder term to them—who so ruthlessly destroy our feathered friends. Insects having claimed priority of our attention, we being especially desirous of securing specimens of the Longicorn beetles, Anneaphyllus aneipennis, Zystrocera virescens— Demonassa Macleayit, Pytheus pulcherrimus, &c., the umbrella and net were got ready for use, and the former was soon employed in receiving the shakings from the Eucalyptus sapling and the white flower of the aster, of which latter plant there were two species, A. argophyllus and A. glandulosus. Our exertions, how- ever, received very little reward, and as to the net it was not once alled into play, for, strange as it may seem, we scarcely saw a 80 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. butterfly or moth, and wasps and hornets were also conspicuous by their almost entire absence. Far better results awaited us in our search under the bark of the larger trees, where we secured numbers of various families of beetles, notably, two specimens— broken unfortunately—of zmneaphyllus aneipennis. We suppose all field naturalists have experienced the delightful sensation of suddenly and unexpectedly coming across a rare specimen, and such a sensation is ours as we perceive on a thistle—a plant for which we shall hereafter entertain a better regard—a fine pair of Phasma, which we lose no time in securing. Have any of our members present ever observed the strange position assumed by this insect when resting? Although possessing six legs, the two front ones are placed straight out alongside the head, giving the insect a much longer appearance than really belongs to it. We have set the female—which is very much larger than the male— in as nearly as possible the position we found it, with the excep- tion of the wings, which we have extended, so that you may have an opportunity of better understanding what we have endeavoured to explain. For protection from capture they rely a good deal upon remaining absolutely without motion, and consequently our pair did not attempt to move or escape until we had them in our hands, when they quickly showed they possessed life, but, need- less to say, their fate was soon sealed. ‘The capture of this insect resulted in our receiving a shaking to the belief we have hitherto had in the value of local names for objects of natural history. In the course of the evening whilst yarning—as is our usual wont —with the landlord and those residents and visitors who may be about the house, the subject gradually worked round to insects, the company having by this time learned something of who and what we were, when the landlord having had the Phasma described to him, stated that he had shortly before taken one himself, and as neither he nor any of the residents knew what it was, they had by common consent called it a ‘‘ Yahoon.” Now, much as local names may be considered useful, we could not realize to ourselves our esteemed and learned Baron von Mueller allowing himself to use so vulgar and senseless a name as Yahoon in connection with a plant, for, of course, the name would be just as applicable, or rather inapplicable, to a plant as to an insect. Close by the spot where we secured our Phasma we were also fortunate enough to obtain a fine specimen of the beautiful longicorn beetle Pytheus pulcherrimus, and, at the foot of a large tree near at hand, was a clean and perfect skeleton of a snake ; but, having no appliances for carrying it, we were compelled to leave it behind us. Next morning, Saturday, opened close and warm; but as the country air put new life into us we determined to make the attempt to reach South Mirboo, distant about ten miles. Owing, tHE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 81 however, to our collecting proclivities it was midday before we had gone half the distance, so we resolved, if we could obtain any water, to rest and enjoy the solid refreshment we had provided ourselves with. Of* water, however, not a drop was obtainable, so on we tramped for another mile or so until we came to a small selection, from the proprietor of which we calculated upon obtaining a supply of that of which we were now in urgent need. Our knock at the door of the hut brought out a young woman, who very kindly promised us a drink ; but, after waiting from ten to fifteen minutes, she appeared with a bucket of milk, stating that the little water they had was so bad she did not like offering it to us. In fact, every one with whom we spoke during our visit to Mirboo stated they could not recollect so dry a season, and, certainly, in none of the fern gullies we visited, and in which water is usually plentiful enough, was any obtainable. To be unable to procure a drink of water in Gippsland, where drought has hitherto been almost unknown, was a new experience to us ; but this state of things was soon altered, for whilst taking our lunch on the shady side of the local school-house the rain came down in torrents, and soon there was abundance of the element so greatly needed. This necessitated our return, and now our umbrellas came in useful for another purpose besides collecting ; for, had it not been for them, we should have got thoroughly drenched. On our way out we had observed numer- ous holes on the track which we were loth to believe were crab holes, they being so much larger than any we had ever before seen, but with the rain our doubts were dispelled, for at almost every hole a crab had ventured out to enjoy the—to him— delightful change. Along this road we did not meet with as much success as on the previous day, for what reason we cannot say, there being as much large timber, and more shiubs in flower, but on neither one nor the other was there much of insect life—indeed, on the shrubs there was literally nothing obtainable, which was more than a surprise to us, for, generally, just before rain is the best collecting time. The third day of our stay opened exceedingly close and oppressive, and by no means of a nature to induce long distance walking ; but, undeterred by this, we started on a western road, which we were informed would eventually bring us to the celebrated Mirboo coal mine. We, however, did not reach so far, so cannot give a description of the mine or its coal, beyond recounting the statement of one resident, whose opinion was that the coal was a really good one for domestic use; for other purposes we presume he was unable to say. This was a much prettier road than the two previous ones, there not being such an abundance of dead trees—indeed, after about a mile there were none of these unsightly objects to be seen, and the shrubs were 82 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. much more plentiful, and in better flower; but, all the same, we were not very successful in our efforts to secure specimens, indeed the first had, so far, been the only day on which we had been at all fortunate. Although we had every desire to do a long walk, the weather was too much for us, and after going some three or four miles, we felt inclined for a rest, and were about to take our seats on a fallen tree, when we were apprised that we had a competitor in the shape of a tiger-snake, whose title we successfully disputed by quickly dispatching him. ‘This was one of the only three snakes we saw in our walks, and they were all of the same species, and all small. Indeed, from the information we desired, it appears that most of the snakes seen or killed in the district are small, which information rather surprised us— firstly, as the abundant shelter should have enabled them to attain a larger size; and, secondly, country information regarding snakes is generally of a nature calculated to induce a belief in visitors that the district they may be in possesses larger and more dangerous snakes than any other, consequently we imbibe a profound belief in the exceeding modesty of the North Mirbooites. Being thoroughly tired, and discouraged with our small success, we returned to the township and spent the remainder of the afternoon in the verandah of our hotel, con- versing with those who had time at their disposal. On all the saplings around Mirboo there were hundreds of the beautiful caterpillar of the large Emperor moth, and these would, of course, in a few weeks after our visit develop into the perfect insect, of which numbers would be then obtainable. One of these moths was brought to us, carefully wrapped in several folds of paper, not so much to preserve the insect as to protect the possessor from its supposed bite. It is strange that, whereas most country people are comparatively indifferent to and careless of snakes, they appear to have a real fear of insects; and our company were quite surprised at the free way in which we handled the above specimen and placed it in a small bottle which one of them had brought for the purpose, he being desirous of taking it away with him to another portion of this colony where he resided, and where, so he said, no such caterpillars had been seen. At Leongatha, about twenty miles distant, we were informed there was a plague of caterpillars, so great a plague, indeed, that one settler had lost almost every blade of grass by them, and was, in consequence, obliged to dispose of most of his stock ; but, like many another country story, this was probably considerably embeliished. No doubt, however, there were plenty of the caterpillars, but what they were we could not learn, except that they were of a greyish colour and travelled very fast. (Zo be continued.) THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 85 NOTES ON THE BUTTERFLIES OF VICTORIA. By F. G. A. BARNARD. (Read before the Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria, 8th April, T&89.) In offering a paper on such a subject as “‘ The Butterflies of Vic- toria,’ I feel I owe some explanation or apology to the Club for the presumption, on my part, of appearing to set myself up as an authority on Victorian lepidoptera. Three reasons, principally, have led me to place these notes before you. Firstly, to interest, and, if possible, instruct the lovers of entomology among our members ; secondly, to endeavour to record, somewhat in their natural sequence, those species of butterflies which have up to the present been taken in Victoria ; and, thirdly, to provoke criticism among our lepidopterists, several of whom, I feel sure, are better able to deal with the subject than I am. My knowledge of Victorian lepidoptera is limited to those species commonly seen about Melbourne, and therefore, in order to do justice to the colony, I have made use of the collection at the National Museum as the basis for my notes, and have to acknowledge the courtesy of our fellow-member, Mr. W. Kershaw, in allowing me full access to the cabinet there. I have also to acknowledge the great assistance received from a little pamphlet just issued by the Natural History Association of New South Wales, on “ Australian Butterflies,” written by Mr. A. Sidney Olliff, F.L.S., Assistant Zoologist, Australian Museum, Sydney, a copy of which was acknowledged by the librarian to-night. Follow- ing the classification and arrangement adopted therein, which is the same as that adopted in Kirby’s “‘ Text Book of Entomology,” butterflies (Rhopalocera) are divided into five families, all of which are represented in Australia, but only four of them in Victoria. The first family is the Nymphalide, characterized by the fore legs of both sexes being undeveloped, the foot or tarsus being rudimentary. This family is divided into four sub-families, three of which are represented in Victoria. The first is the Danainee of which there are three Australian genera, but the genus Danais is the only one of which specimens have been taken in Victoria. Two species have been captured here, but neither of them can, I think, be considered endemic. Danazs plexippus, Linn.—syn. D. archippus—is the large orange-red butterfly with black markings which is becoming somewhat common around Melbourne, and is known as the American butterfly, as it is supposed to have grad- ually spread from that quarter of the globe. It is easily known by its slow flapping flight. I have not noticed any specimens of this species this season, but perhaps that is because I have not been able to devote much time to collecting. ‘The other species of 84 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. this genus which has been found here is D. Jefé/ia, Stoll. It is smaller than D. p/exippus, with less black and more white in its colouring. It is fairly common in New South Wales and Queens- land. I have not taken this species yet, but I saw a specimen at Kew last season. The next sub-family represented in Victoria is Nymphaline. It is an almost universal sub-family, and in Australia is repre- sented by about 25 species belonging to 15 genera. Our repre- sentatives are Pyvamets Kershawi, M‘Coy, almost identica! with FP. cardut, Linn., the “ Painted Lady ” of England, which is found in many other parts of the world; P. ztea, Fabr., the “ Australian Admiral,” a small but handsome butterfly, rich brown and black, with cream-coloured blotches. The caterpillars may generally be found on plants of the English nettle, but I have not yet suc- ceeded in rearing them in captivity. 2. Lucasiz, Misk., has just been described in the transactions of the Linnean Society of New South Wales from specimens obtained at Fernshawe by our former member, Dr. T. P. Lucas, and named after him. Junonza vellida, Fabr., is about the size of P Kershawi, rather pale brown, with six prominent purple-black “eyes” on the wings. We now come to the sub-family Satyrinze, whose headquarters in Australia may be put down as Victoriaand Tasmania. Of the genus Xenica five species are represented in the museum collec- tion. X. achanta, Don, is a prettily marked ‘ brown ”—as this sub-family is commonly called—with distinctly lined “eyes” on the wings, common near the Yarra, &c. X. KAdugit, Fabr., a darker species, is also taken near Melbourne. X. dathionella, Fabr., X. Hobartia, Westw., and X. Kershawt, Misk., are recorded from Fernshaw and Gippsland. The former is a very pretty little insect, the under side of the hind wings being ornamented with silver markings. ‘The mountain butterfly, Zpznephile abeona, Don, formerly known under the generic name of Azpparchia, represents the next genus here. It is of a rich brownish black, with two prominent orange bands on the fore wings, and is a very handsome object when flying in its favourite haunts. The next genus, Heteronympha, contains one of the commonest of our Victorian butterflies, viz., A. merope, Fabr., the female of which I consider, though not brilliantly coloured, one of our handsomest butterflies. Seven other species of this genus are in the Museum collection, all from Fernshawe or Gippsland, of which 7. cordace, Hubn., a very darkly marked insect, A. philerope, Bois, and HI. Banksii, Leach, are the best known. The next Australian family, Erycinidze, is represented by one species, recorded from Northern Queensland, where it is very rare. We now come to the family Lyczenide, generally known as “ blues” and “coppers ” from their metallic colouring. They are THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 85 mostly of small size, and very numerous. In Australia about 80 species, belonging to 15 to 16 genera, have already been described, and there are, doubtless, others yet to be worked out. Many of the species are furnished with ‘“‘tails ” on the hind wings. The Museum collection contains about 25 species classified under the five genera Lucia, Lyczena, Hypochrysops, Ialmenus, and Ogyris. The species of the first-named genus are easily distinguishable by the bright copper-coloured patches on the fore wings. Two species are named—viz., Lucia lucanus, Fabr., and L. auzifer. Eight species are placed under the genus Lyczéna, but I believe recent workers have divided the genus into several, so that probably more than one genus is here represented. These are the little “blues” so common in our gardens and paddocks. JZ. dbwtica, (Linn.), Z. agricola, L. phebe, (Mur.), L. evinus (Fabr.), LZ. alsulus, and ZL. biocellata, are the named species. The next genus is Hypochrysops, which contains some of our rarest butterflies. Four species are in the Museum collection, but none with specific names. (They are characterized by metallic blue bases to the fore wings, shading off to purplish-black at the edges.) The largest specimen is about 1¥% inches across the expanded wings, and was taken in Studley Park in 1882, and marked “ very rare.” Another is marked “S. Brighton—rare,” and Fernshawe and Moe supplied the other specimens. Of the genus Ialmenus, five species have been taken in Victoria, of which J/. evagorus, Don, regarding which I read some notes at a recent meeting, is the one most frequently met with. The other species are L. myrsilus, Dbli., a very handsome species from Warragul, Lal Lal, and Fernshawe. J. ictinus, Hew., from Brighton, and two un- named species from Fernshawe and the Western District, com- plete the list. The last farnily of the Lyczenidze is Ogyris, with four species, two of which are from the Western District—O. o/anes, Feld., nearly 2 inches across, and O. oretas, Hew. ‘The latter is, perhaps, the most brilliant of our Victorian butterflies. It is about 1% inches across, and of a splendid metallic blue, and rivalling P. Ulysses, Linn., of Queensland, in its lustre. 0. abrota, Hew., and O. zosine, Hew., were taken near Melbourne. The family Papilionidee, distinguished by both sexes having six perfect legs, contains the largest and handsomest butterflies known, and is divided into two sub-families, the Pierinze and Papilionine. The distinguishing feature of the sub-family Pierinze is the down- ward curve of the inner margin of the hind wings, forming a groove for the reception of the abdomen. In Australia there are Over 50 species belonging to this group, comprised in 8 or 10 genera, several of which were formerly included under the genus Pieris. The first genus represented here is Terias, of which Lerias smilax, Don, a pretty little sulphur-yellow butterfly with dusky tips to the fore wings, more common in the southern 86 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. suburbs than other parts of the metropolitan district. We now come to those butterflies known as “ whites,” among which the genus Delias includes two species, formerly known under the name of Pieris, well-known to Victorian collectors, viz., Delias harpalyce, Don., and D. aganippe, Don. These two butterflies are characterized by brilliant red and yellow markings on the. under side of the wings. ‘The sexes also show considerable dif- ference in the colouring of the upper surfaces. The species D. gganippe may be distinguished from D. harpalyce by its more angular-shaped fore wings, the more distinct and prominent markings of the upper, and the whiter ground of the under surface of the wings. Four other species of “ whites” have been taken near Melbourne, but it is somewhat doubtful if any of them are endemic species, as one of them at any rate is one of the “‘ migratory butterflies,” which at times pass over the country in such vast numbers. Delzas melania (?) is white, with the exception of the wings being edged with black, which at the extremities of the fore wings expands so as to enclose several small white blotches; the under side is deep yellow. Ajpias (Pieris) cga, Bois, resembles the preceding, and is a common Queensland butterfly. elenozs (Pieris ) teutonia, Fabr., is one of the ‘‘ migratory whites.” Its upper surface is black and white, and under black and yellow on white ground. Dr. Lucas remarks the presence of these species near Melbourne, in a note forwarded to the Victorian Naturalist (vol. li, page 152), in February, 1887. Cadlzdryas pyranthe (?) Linn., resembles J. melania mentioned before, but without the blotches spoken of. It was taken in Gippsland. ‘The sub- family Papilioninze contains some of the largest and handsomest butterflies known, and in Australia is represented by some 22 species, of which the brilliant Imperial Swallow-tail (asco Ulysses, Linn.), and the Bird’s-wing Butterfly (Ovaithoptera Pria- mus, Linn.), of Queensland, are familiar specimens in most collec- tions. Unfortunately for the appearance of Victorian collections, they do not extend so far south as our colony. Our Papilios are fapilio sthenelus, Macly., and P. Macleayanus, Leach. The former should, I think, be considered an immigrant, as it is rather common in Queensland and parts of New South Wales, but has not often been taken in Victoria. The Museum collection contains speci- mens taken at Brighton and in the University Gardens (December, 1873), and Dr. Lucas also mentions having seen it at Moe (see Victorian Naturalist, vol. v., page 23). It greatly resembles the Swallow-tail Butterfly of England, but has no “tails.” [ts colour is pale cream and black, with two red spots near the inner margin of the hind wings. It measures about 31% inches across. P. Macleayanus, Leach, belongs to the “tailed” section of the Papilios, and is found in the mountainous parts of the colony, such as Dandenong Ranges, Healesville, &c, It has, I believe, THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 87 been occasionally taken near Melbourne. It is a very pretty insect; the bases of the wings are deep emerald, shading off to nearly white, with a wide black margin, enclosing a row of white spots, with two green blotches near the upper edge. Its expanse of wing is about 234 inches. The last family of butterflies is the Hesperides, the insects belonging. to which are popularly known as “skippers,” from their irregular, jerky flight. They are mostly small, and of sombre colour. Some 7o species have been recorded for Australia, and probably more remain to be added to the list. The Museum collection contains about 24 species, belonging to the genera Pamphilla, Telesto, and Hesperilla (Hesperia). The largest specimen is about 14 inches across. This family is also commoner near the ranges than in the immediate vicinity of Melbourne. I have now briefly run through the Victorian butterflies as represented at the National Museum. They will be found to number about 80 species, but of these it may safely be said that nearly one-half are found only in the higher parts of the colony, while the butterflies common about Melbourne are under 20 in number. DESCRIPTION OF A NEW CHORILANA. By Baron FERD. voN MUELLER, K.C.M.G., M. & Pu.D., BOR SS., 2c: CHORILENA HASSELLII. Rather dwarf; leaves small, lanceolar- or linear-elliptical, some- what cuneate at the nearly sessile base, almost flat, equally green on both sides, as well as the branchlets beset with scattered longish simple hairlets, finally more glabrous; flowers singly terminating the branchlets or also developed from the upper axils, on short stalks ; bracteoles small, linear- or ovate-elliptical, distant from the calyx ; sepals very much shorter than the petals, somewhat unequal, ovate- or lanceolar-elliptical, outside beset with colourless hairlets; petals large, membranous, narrowly elliptic-cuneate, glabrous except towards’ the summit, yellowish, with a dark median stripe, at first connivent towards the base and distinctly overlapping ; stamens about as long as the corolla; filaments linear-capillary, provided above the base with minute hairlets-bearing adnate scalelets, otherwise glabrous ; style elonga- ted, capillary, glabrous ; stigma minute ; ovularies blunt, bearing upwards copious hairlets. On the western side of the Stirling-Ranges ; A. Hassell, Esq. This plant resembles rather some species of Billardiera and Marianthus than any Chorileena or Eriostemon. The specimens 88 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. obtained are only about a foot high. The leaves attain 24 inch in length; the petals are from 1 to 1 inch long; anthers and ovularies and ovules are normal; pollen grains ovate-ellipsoid, smooth ; fruit was at the flowering time (early in spring) of the plant not available. From what is seen on this remarkable plant, it becomes desir- able to unite Nematolepis as a sub-genus with Chorilena. Should, however, the generic separation be kept up, then our new species ~ might as well be placed into Nematolepis, the differences within the genus Correa, as regards the corolla, being quite as great, whereas again diversity of the inflorescence would, for the ex- tended genus Nematolepis, not be greater as for Lasiopetalum. _LVematolepis phebaioides has recently been found near Mt. Rugged by Miss S. Brooks. Chorilena quercifolia extends to the Shannon (F. v. M.), where it attains a height of 30 feet. THe Tati TREES oF Vicroria.—In a paragraph in the Naturalist for February last (vol. v., page 152) reference is made to a giant tree said to exist in the Dandenong Ranges. Since the paragraph appeared considerable correspondence has taken place in the press on the subject, and careful measurements of several reputed giant trees have been taken. The one previously men- tioned has thus been reduced to 220 feet high and 48 feet 6 inches in circumference at 6 feet from the ground. However, in the same locality, one was measured 271 feet high, but with smaller girth. Mr. G. S. Perrin, F.L.S., Conservator of Forests, pub- lished a tabulated statement of the tall trees of Victoria in the Argus of 11th June, 1889, from which it appears a height of 480 feet is claimed for a tree on the Black Spur (Mr. W. Ferguson) ; 470 feet for one at Mount Baw Baw (Mr. G. W. Robinson) ; 415 feet for one in Cape Otway forest (Mr. C. Walter); and 392 feet for one near Fernshaw (Mr. C. Walter), but these measure- ments require further verification. ERRATA.—Page 53, line 31—Insert ‘ with small blunt leaves ” after Dammara Palmerstonit. Page 54, line 2—For Ballaria read Baltaria. y Puturalists Club of Victoria. | aN EER President: A. Hy Sl UCAS, MA., B Sa, ARR AOA RR en nner - — in which oe are ‘ual soe eed; for the Boon of aes ; and ea - She No Entrance Fee. Annual ee including copy of proceedings, 1bds., dating “The eaiiaay Meetings for the reading of papers, and exhibition of specimens, with “short conyersazione, ‘are held on the second Monday in each month at the Royal ociety’s Hall, Victoria Street, Melbourne, at 8 p.m. The proceedings of the Club are recorded in its” journal—the “ Victorian Naturalist.” nnual Subscription, 6s. 6d., post free. (To members free.) With the view of popularizing the study of the Natural History of the Colony, cor- espondence, notes, and queries relating to this subject are invited for insertion, and hould be addressed to the Editor at the Wesley College, Prahran. Any of the numbers from the commencement, January, 1884, can be obtained from the Hon, Sec, Mr. F. G.-A. Barnard, Kew, at sixpence eich; or in sets. Vol. 1. 1884-85), 16 numbers, 7s. 6d.; Vol. II. (1885-86), 12 numbers, 6s.; Vol. III. 886-87), 12 numbers, 6s.; Vol. V. (1888-89), 12 numbers, 6s.; each set with title- sage and in ‘ex for earruee