ict. Nat. 



6 Sutton, Noles on the Sandringham Flora. [^"^Lin^' 



water plants, and containing a comparatively large number of 

 species representing the most important and characteristic 

 orders of Victorian plants ; hence, a knowledge of its members 

 means a good insight into the larger Victorian flora. To many 

 of us living in the metropolis, indeed, it serves as the principal 

 standard by which we measure the floras of other more distant 

 localities. Unfortunately, what remains of it is so rapidly 

 passing away with the extension of the city southward that 

 in another ten years, perhaps, ' fragments alone will be left of 

 it. For this reason alone, if for no other, it seems worth while 

 to attempt its description in terms of the oecologists, and to put 

 on record, as completely as possible, a census of its species. 



As far as can be found the only efforts that have been made 

 to more or less systematically describe this flora are those of Mr. 

 C. A. Topp, M.A., F.L.S., in "The Handbook of Melbourne," for 

 the use of the members of the Australasian Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, Melbourne meeting, iqoo, and that of 

 Mr. G. Weindorfer in his short but interesting description of an 

 excursion to Sandringham in December, IQ03, contained in 

 vol. XX. of the Victorian Naturalist. 



The type of vegetation covering the district mentioned, 

 excepting certain small areas within it, the foreshore, and the 

 cliffs and their vicinity, is one which, according to Schimper, 

 is common to mild temperate regions, where the bulk of the 

 rainfall happens in winter, the summers are dry, and where 

 the substratum is a sandy soil liable to become parched in the 

 dry season. Although its general character is due to these 

 factors, which are all present, and to some others of lesser 

 importance, the fact that the formation corresponds more or 

 less closely with the low, undulating geologic area known as 

 the ' red beds,' the upper part of which has been leached of 

 its iron, leaving a surface of loose sand, makes it an ' edaphic ' 

 rather than a ' climatic ' formation. 



A varying significance has been attached to the term 

 ' formation ' by oecologists, but Warming defines it as a com- 

 munity of species which have become associated together by 

 definite edaphic or climatic conditions, and which has a 

 certain fixed appearance, or ' physiognomy,' dependent on 

 the dominant growth forms, the density, height, and colour of 

 the vegetation, the number and duration of life of the species, 

 and their seasonal relationships. The one under consideration 

 at first seems referable to his ' dwarf shrub formation,' and, 

 from the continual occurrence of several species of Epacrids, 

 might in that case be described as a dwarf shrub ' heath ' : 

 but the thick layer of raw humus, the most characteristic 

 feature of heath grounds, is not apparent here, and the forma- 

 tion is both taller and more complex than in European ' heaths.' 



