June"! Field Naturalists' Club — Proceedings. ig 



1916 J 



Comments u])on the paper were made by ^Messrs. Cox, 

 Sutton, Hardy, Harvey, Barnard, Coghill, and Luher. 



EXHIBITS. 



By Miss G. Nethercote. — Flowers of Cyathodes acerosu, N.O. 

 Epacrideae, from Tasmania. 



By Messrs. F. Pitcher and J. Sticldand. — Series of photo- 

 graphs taken and herbarium specimens collected in and around 

 Marys\nlle, in illustration of their paper. 



By Miss J. Rollo. — Flower of Stapclia hitfonia, Willdenow, 

 syn. Orbca hufona. Haworth. N.O. Asclepiadeae, Starfish, 

 Carrion, or Toad Flower. 



By Mr. A. L. Scott. — Photograph of rocking stone, Buffalo 

 plateau, and specimen of granite from same locality. 



By Mr. J. Searle. — Young living specimens of Lepiduris 

 viridis, adult in formalin. 



By other exhibitors. — Cassinia arcuata, R. Br., Drooping 

 Cotton-wood or Chinese Scrub, and Gomphocarpns fndicostcs, 

 R. Br., N.O. Asclepiadeae, Arghel of Syria. 



After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 



RAMBLES IN RAAK. 



By J. G. O'DoNOGHUE. 



(Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 14th Feb., 1916.) 



{^Continued from page 15.) 



The following morning we were up at 5.30, and after breakfast 

 headed due south through the Tall Thickheads to the first one 

 of the series of large " lake-beds " previously mentioned. Bird- 

 life was fairly numerous, owing to the presence, probably, of a 

 water trough fed from three iron tanks sunk in a small catch- 

 ment on the northern slope of the depression. Here the 

 drought-resistant properties of the Native Tobacco, Nicotiana 

 suaveolens, and the introduced Sea-green Tobacco, Nicotiana 

 glauca, were demonstrated in an unmistakable manner. Prior 

 to the recent drought the latter had taken complete possession 

 of vast areas of the country, but at the termination of the 

 aridity few, if any. of the trees remained alive, whilst in and 

 among their dead boles and branches the native plant grew 

 luxuriantly, and paraded its racemes of flowers triumphantly. 

 It was not long before the monotonous sameness of the " lake- 

 beds " induced us to change our course. Bearing west and 

 then north, we came upon some interesting timbered country, 

 wherein the Needle Hakea, the Sandalwood, the Bignonia 

 Emu-bush, Eremophila hignoniflora, and the Willow Acacia, 

 Acacia salicina, abounded. The Hakea was frequented by the 



