THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 121 



a place where tired brains and aching hearts should find relief, 

 where fairies might hold their revels, and the tired Titan find 

 some brief repose. Yet presently we might lose this beauty spot. 

 It is not reserved, and is only protected by a gazetted proclama- 

 tion, which merely withholds the area from cutting of timber. 

 Something should be done at once to effect the permanent 

 reservation of this area, and we suggest that the Field Naturalists' 

 Club should initiate such action. 



Monday, gth November, was devoted to the Britannia Creek, 

 but we did not on this occasion go far enough along the tramway 

 to reach the saw mill which is cutting on the margin of the State 

 Forest. Previous experience taught us that a whole day should 

 be devoted to the trip. The ferns and glen shrubs, we know, are 

 of less luxuriant growth and less numerous in the Britannia Creek 

 valley than in correspondingly accessible parts of the Don valley. 

 Startmg at an early hour we walked easterly along the railway, 

 encountering many plants which had been noted on Saturday, 

 and saw at the roadside near by Leptospermitm scojicirium and 

 Melaleuca squarrosa in bloom. Further away, on the low hill- 

 side, the Native Cherry Tree, Exocarpos cupressijormis, bore 

 young fruit. Passing on to where the timber tramway connects 

 the Britannia Creek saw-mills with the railway, we use the tram 

 track for the rest of our route, soon across marshy land where 

 grows a dwarf forest of sedges, &c., comprised chiefly of Xerotes 

 longifolia, X. thunbergii, Gahnia trifida, and Cyperus lucidus, 

 and sheltered by these plants a few smaller ones. A bottle of 

 water and weed taken here showed, on later examination under 

 the microscope, some filamentous algae, such as Spirogyra and 

 Zygnema, some Desmids and countless myriads of Protozoa 

 feeding on the decaying weed. Here and there we saw the Blue 

 Lily, Patersonia glauca, the orchid Microtis porrifolia, and 

 occasionally the Bladderwort, Utricularia dichotoma. Then, 

 after crossing the Yarra Rivulet and some more flat land, the 

 tramway begins to climb through lightly timbered undulating 

 country. Here we meet with the " Sandringham flora" mixed 

 with other plants. We note Stackhousia linarifolia, Gompholo- 

 hiuni hiiegelii, Sphcerolobiuin vimineum, and the Trigger Plant, 

 Candollea serrulata ; also Brunouia australis, Tetratheca ciliata, 

 Bur char dia ihmbellata, C omesper'nia volubile, C. ericinum, 

 Drosera menziesii, Pultenma gunnii, hidigofera aimtralis (in 

 seed), Brachyconie, sp., Helickiysum apiculatum, Wahlenbergia 

 gracilis, &c. All these are fairly plentiful. Of orchids a few 

 finely developed Thelgmitra aristata, Pterostylis cncullata, and 

 Prasophyllum patens were seen, and a small isolated patch of 

 Calochilus robertsoni. Where the tram track winds about the 

 south side contour of the valley, and the slope is steeper, the 

 Tetratheca continues and grows more robust, the " Sandringham 



