Vol. XXVIII. 



J SuTTOX, Notes on the Sandringham Flora. 



NOTES ON THE SANDRINGHAM FLORA. 



By C. S. Sutton, M.B. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, loth Oct., 1910.) 



The species composing the native vegetation now covering the 

 area lying between Sandringham and Mordialloc, and ex- 

 tending back from the sea a varying distance, as far as the 

 neighbourhood of Oakleigh and Spring Vale, are collectively 

 known to us as the " Sandringham flora." Although the 

 present limits of the " formation " cannot now be exactly 

 defined, it may be said, speaking roughly, that originally it 

 ranged to St. Kilda, Sandridge, and Emerald Hill, and covered 

 a great part of what is now Prahran, Malvern, and Caulfield, 

 and a perhaps smaller portion of Hawthorn and Camberwell. 



Bunce, in his " Australasiatic Reminiscences " (1857), says : 

 — " After crossing Gardiner's Creek, leaving the river on our 

 left, we travelled over a piece of rising, sandy ground, which 

 formed a belt between the Yarra Yarra and the sandy heath 

 which we found in the neighbourhood of Brighton. This place 

 was richly covered with low shrubs and plants of a heathy 

 nature. Leucopogon (several species), Astroloma (or native 

 cranberry), Epacris (white and red), a dwarf species of 

 Casuarina, Tetratheca, Eriostemon, several species of dwarf 

 integral-leaved Acacia or wattles, Leptospermum, Hippuris (or 

 Mare's Tail), Daviesia, Pultenaea, and Pleurandria, were among 

 the most prominent." 



Further evidence of the close approach of the heath 

 " formation " to Melbourne is to be found in Hannaford's 

 " Jottings in Australia " (1856), where such important con- 

 stituents of the flora as Epacris impressa, Labill., Leucopogon 

 Richei, Br., Correa virens, Sm. (C. speciosa, Andr.), Aotus 

 villosa, Sm., Cassyiha puhescens, Br., Rhagodia Billardieri, Br., 

 Senecio rupicola, Lesson and Richard (Senecio lautus, Forst.), 

 Trachymene diversijolia, F. v. M. [T. heterophylla, F. v. M.), and 

 Erythrcpa australis, Br., are noted as occurring at St. Kilda, and 

 Pleurandria sericea, Br. {Hihhertia densiflora, F. v. M.), Hibhertia 

 prostrata, Hook. {H. jasciculata, Br.), Ricinocarpus sidceformis, 

 Ferd. v. Mueller {R. pinifolius, Desf.), Bossicea cinerea, Br., 

 Leucopogon virgatus, Br., and Didiscus pilosus, Benth., at or 

 near Liardet's Beach, or Sandridge, now Port Melbourne. 



The Sandringham flora has thus, in the first place, a senti- 

 mental interest to us, in having at one time occurred over 

 nearly the whole area now covered by the southern suburbs 

 of Melbourne. 



The flora is practically interesting in being the richest and 

 most convenient to us for purposes of collection and study, 

 affording, as it does, seashore, land, and (to a lesser degree) 



