BY A. A. HAMILTON. 503 



the Kyllingia weakening as the saturation decreases. The lat- 

 ter is a tropical species, reaching its southern limit in New 

 South "Wales. Its luxuriant growth on the rich alluvial flats 

 on the northern rivers has gained it an unenviable notoriety 

 among the dairy farmers, who are responsible for its vernacular 

 name. 



The Small Loosestrife, Lythrum hyssopi 'folium L., a weedy 

 annual with a cosmopolitan range, chiefly maritime, reaches its 

 optimum in a ditch or shallow pool, but attains a fair growth 

 in the pasture of the Casuarina forest., Haloragis micrantha 

 R. Br., a twiggy, depressed undershrub, indigenous in Japan ana 

 New Zealand and extending northwards along the Australian 

 coast to Queensland, is occasional in the fluvial mud, its short 

 stems appressed to the moist soil with the flowering branches 

 held erect, raising the inflorescence above the water line. 



Two small rushes, Juncus bufonius L., a cosmopolitan annual, 

 and ./. plebius R. Br., a perennial confined to Australia, are 

 represented in the pasture. J. bufonius requires more moisture 

 than its associate and can tolerate a greater degree of salinity, 

 frequently intruding the herbals in the brackish station, and 

 developing a broken, short-lived sward. J. plebius has a scat- 

 tered formation with rarely more than a few individuals in 

 each tuft. It is occasional in the sour clayey soils in the 

 Bankstown-Cabramatta district where it is joined by a diminu- 

 tive Sedge, C'yperus tenellus L., an annual with the growth habit 

 of ./. bufonius, a native of South Africa with a southerly range 

 along the Australian coast from New South Wales and extend- 

 ing to New Zealand. 



A Malvaceous perennial introduced from South America, 

 Modiola multifield Moench., creeps through the pasture, rooting 

 at short intervals and starving out any weak herbs in the 

 vicinity of its closely-knitted carpet. In the Couch lawn, its 

 creeping stems are forced upwards and it is unable to form a 

 mat, the long runners trailing over the sward. 



Soliva sessilis Ruiz & Pav., a flaccid annual with finely dis- 

 sected leaves and a low decumbent growth, dominates during its 

 active season large patches of the Couch lawn on the marsh 

 boundary. The creeping stems root freely, forming an intricate 

 mat and suppressing the Couch, a few blades only of the grass 

 struggling through to the light. In St. Luke's Park, at the 

 head of the saltmarsh in Hen and Chickens Bav, a Couch lawn 



