190 Excursion to Healesville. [ 



Vict. Nat. 

 Feb. 



attached, in formalin ; also Daphnia hatched from ephippial 

 eggs collected more than four years ago. 



By Mr. F. Wisewould. — Land shell, Rhytida cappillacea, from 

 Pakenham. 



After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 



EXCURSION TO HEALESVILLE. 



The morning of Saturday, 25th November, the day appointed 

 for the whole-day excursion to Healesville, opened delightfully 

 fine, and when the train arrived from Melbourne at a quarter 

 past ten I was pleased to find a party of eight members, repre- 

 senting almost all the branches of the Club's activities, had under- 

 taken the forty-mile journey for the sake of a day among the hills. 

 My co-leader. Dr. Shaw, F.E.S., had agreed with me a few days 

 before that the valley of the Myers Creek would probably prove 

 the most satisfactory hunting-ground at that time of year. 

 Some of us had traversed this track on the evening of the 

 return trip from Toolangi, in November, iqio. The Myers is a 

 tributary of the Chum Creek, which it joins about a mile above 

 the confluence of that stream with the Watts. It rises in the 

 gullies of Mt. St. Leonard, in a forest area, and has a southerly 

 course a little to the west of the Metropolitan Board's territory. 

 The valley of the Myers is lavishly filled with gully shrubs and 

 ferns, from magnificent specimens of the tree-ferns — Alsophila 

 Anstralis, Dicksonia Billardieri, and Osniunda barbara — to fine 

 patches of the small Rat-tail Fern, Asplenium ft abelli folium, 

 with a great variety of mosses. Of late years a good road has 

 been made right through the scenery, running above the old 

 tram track, faking a cab to the junction of the Chum and 

 Myers, here lined with Leptospermum lanigenim, Prostanthera 

 lasiantha, Pomaderris apetala, P. vaccinijolia. Acacia mdanoxylon, 

 and A. dealbata, so as to avoid tramping the first few less 

 interesting miles, a start was made along the banks of the 

 creek, and from there onward there was no lack of beauty. 

 Before entering the gully is a patch scattered with Leptospermum 

 scoparium and stra}' plants of the clay country, such as are 

 found around Ringwood, and here, too, is the farthest point of 

 penetration into the mountain country of Eucalyptus Stuartiana. 

 At the entrance is a particularly thick patch of Daviesia ulicina, 

 now covered with angular green fruits. At the time of the 

 wild-flower show this was a mass of bloom. As 3-ou proceed 

 along the road the hill into which it is cut rises steeply on 

 the left (western) side, whUe the stream is kept on the 

 right. Beyond that the hills rise. So by following this 

 road one passes through two belts of entirely different 

 classes of vegetation. On the upper side Helichfyswn semi- 

 papposum was plentifully distributed along the bank in short 



