b A GLANCE AT THE FLORA OF MOUNT WILSON, 



A GLANCE AT THE FLORA OF MOUNT WILSON. 

 By the Rev. W. Woolls, Ph.D., F.L.S. 



The Mount Wilson platform which is 83 miles from Sydney and 

 3,478 feet above the sea-level, stands at the termination of Bell's 

 line from Richmond, and is about five miles westward of the 

 mountain from which it takes its name. As, however, the 

 country between tlie platform and the mountain is very rugged 

 and impracticable, the road is somewhat circuitous and about len 

 miles in length. In travelling towards the mountain, the formation 

 is for the most part of Hawkesbury sandstone, and the plants are to 

 the general observer rather iniinleresting when compared with the 

 luxuriant vegetation of the disintegrated trap. The Eucalypts, so 

 far as I had an opportunity of examining them along the road, are 

 those known by the popular names of " Peppermint " {E. piperita, 

 Sm.), " White Gum " [E. hcemastoma, Sm.), " Mountain Ash " 

 {E. Sieberiana, F. v. M.), " Mountain White Gum " (E. jjauciflora, 

 Sieb.), " Stringy Bark " {^E. capitella, Stn.), and a " Scrubby Gum " 

 [E. stricta, Sieb.). With the exception of the last, which forms 

 brushes on the elevated parts of the Blue Mountains, the other 

 species are trees of moderate size, none of them attaining that 

 which they do in more favourable localities. The Proteacese are 

 well represented by numerous species oiHakea, Persoonia, Grevillea, 

 Banksia, Symphyonema, Isopogon, Petrophila, Conospermum, 

 Lomatia, Lamberiia, and the far-famed Telopea or Waratah. The 

 fruits of Ilakea and Persoorda seemed larger than those on similar 

 species in the low country, one of the former (apparently //. 

 gihhosa, Gas.), measuring 2| inches in length, and more than 5 

 inches in circumference ; whilst Grevillea laurifolia (Sieb.), with 

 its trailing branches and crimson flowers appeai'ed in large patches 

 here and there by the road side. Of the Rutaceae, I noticed the 

 two forms of Boronia which by some are referred to B. p)innata 



