70 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



In conclusion I would say that, although the Alpine flora of 

 Australia does not compare in beauty with that of the European 

 Alps, yet it presents its visitor with an indelible picture, which 

 every Australian may justly regard with pride and speak of as 

 " the Alpine flora of Australia." 



NOTES OF A VISIT TO MOUNT ROLAND, TASMANIA. 



Bv Miss K. Cowi.k. 

 {Read he/ore the Field Natural isW Club of Victoria, lOth Augvsf, 1903.) 

 The following notes of a visit to Mount Roland in January last 

 may be of interest to members of our Club. The mountain is a 

 familiar landmark to everyone living in and around Uevonport, 

 on the north-west coast of Tasmania. It stands away in the 

 south, distant son)e twenty miles from the coast, and forms the 

 south-eastern boundary of the great bend at the Mersey. 



Mount Roland is bold and rugged, its northern end being 

 an almost perpendicular escarpment ; its height is 4,047 feet, 

 and in winter it is often snow-capped. The northern and eastern 

 sides are composed principally of an ancient conglomerate, 

 the pebbles, milky white and water-worn, being embedded in a 

 reddish-coloured matrix. Some of the boulders at the foot of the 

 mountain are smooth and rounded, and look like inlaid work. 

 This smoothing of the rocks may have been the work of an 

 ancient sea, which left in the lower levels, between the base of 

 the mountain and the sea coast, the upper Paleozoic marine beds, 

 in which occur fossils, such as Spirifers, Aviculopectens, &c. We 

 did not find any traces of fossils in the stones brought from the 

 mountain. 



For the first thousand feet the track winds up through a forest 

 composed of such trees and shrubs as the Stringybark, Eucalyptus 

 ohliqua, L'Her., Peppermint Gum, E. amygdalma, Lab. ; Dog- 

 wood, Fomaderris opetala,h3ih. ; Musk. Aster (Olearia) argophylla, 

 F. v. M. ; Silver Wattle, Acacia dealbata, Link ; River Wattle, 

 A. diacolor, Willd. ; the Prickly Acacias, A. diffusa, Edw., and 

 A. veriirillata, Willd. ; Prickly Box, Bursaria spinosi, Cav. ; 

 Sassafras, Aiherosperma moschatu7n, Lab. ; Stinkwood, Zieria 

 smi'hii, Andr. ; Honeywood, Bedfordia salicina, D.C. ; Cassinia 

 aculeata, R. Br. ; ]\Iint-tree, Prostanthera lasiantha. Lab. ; 

 Tea-tree, Leptospermuni I'ujjestre, H. ; and Guitar Plant, Lomaiia 

 tinctoria, R. Br. Among these were such smaller plants as 

 Pimeleas, Clematis arisiata, R. Br. ; the Purpleberry, BiUiardieri 

 longijiora, Lab. ; the Blueberry, Dianella longifolia, R. Br. ; and 

 the beautiful White Iris, Diplarrhena inorea, Lab. 



Our first halt was near a spring, in the shade of some fine 

 specimens of the Valley Tree Fern, Dicksonia billardieri, 



