170 Field Naturalists'- Club — Proceedings. [vo[."^'xxxv. 



By Mr. H. B. Williamson. — Dried specimens of five species of 

 plants not previously recorded for Victoria, viz. : — Brachyconic 

 microcarpa, F. v. M., collected by himself at Cann River, 

 January, 1918 (it agrees with a specimen in the National 

 Herbarium, Melbourne, collected by Mr. Sayer in the same 

 locality, and the determination has been confirmed by Professor 

 Ewart) ; Pultencsa polifolia, Cunn., and P. procumhcns, Cunn., 

 and Acacia Dawsoni, R. T. Baker (these were received from Mr. 

 Clinton, of Mitta Mitta, in November last — the two last-named 

 species were determined by Mr. J. H. Maiden, F.L.S.) ; and 

 Loranthiis longiflorus, Desr., obtained at Genoa on a Blood- 

 wood Tree, Eucalyptus corymhosa, by Rev. A. J. Maher, pre- 

 viously recorded for New South Wales only. 



After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 



" The Australian Environment." — The Commonwealth 

 Advisory Council of Science and Industry has issued a most 

 interesting memoir by Dr. Griffith Taylor, of the Commonwealth 

 Bureau of Meteorology. The work extends to 188 quarto pages, 

 and is well illustrated with 15 contour maps in colour and 167 

 other maps and diagrams, as well as numerous tables of rainfall, 

 &c. The continent of Australia has been divided into fifteen 

 regional divisions, one of which, comprising south-western Wes- 

 tern Australia, he has happily named Swanland, as a set-off to 

 Gippsland at the south-eastern corner of the continent. Each 

 division is considered in the light of its value for settlement from 

 a topographical, drainage, and vegetation point of view, the 

 character and origin of the rainfall being the dominating feature. 

 In dealing with the northern half of South Australia, designated 

 " Eyre," it is remarked that though the Musgrave and Macdonnell 

 Ranges are as high as an}^ Australian mountains, except those 

 in the vicinity of Kosciusko, they have little effect on the rain- 

 fall, the lack of moisture arising from the fact that Central 

 Australia is located in the path of the trade wind. The 

 memoir shows a vast amount of painstaking research among 

 different authorities, and weighing of results. It seems probable, 

 unless some violent upheaval takes place, that the greater 

 part of Australia must always remain a pastoral area, the 

 amount of territory that can be irrigated sufficiently for agricul- 

 tural purposes being a mere trifle. The volume has been excel- 

 lently produced, and should be of great value in determining 

 pohcies of settlement. It has been issued at the nominal price 

 of five shillings. The contour maps are also procurable in 

 atlas form at eighteenpence, and will be found useful in any 

 study. 



