220 Weindorfer, The Cradle Mountains, Tasmania. [^'Aprii^^'' 



pandanifolia. Slowly we ascend, collecting among the masses 

 of stones and boulders the graceful fern Lomaria alpina, Azorella 

 dichopetala, Oreomyrrhis andicola, GaiiUheria antipoda, and 

 Oitrisia integrifolia. Arrived at the top of the crags, a detour 

 was unavoidable in order to find a convenient track to the 

 cairn. The collecting of plants had, on account of the absence 

 of phanerogamic plant-life, from this point to be practically 

 abandoned, only unapproachable places exhibiting the vivid 

 green of the leaves of Milligania densiflora, Blandfordia mar- 

 ginata, and Astelia alpina, or, where the snow-fields had opened 

 to the sun's rays little patches of a minimum of humus soil, 

 tenaciously evolved during many hundreds of years by those 

 pioneers of soil-building, the lichens and mosses, Rubus 

 Gunnianus, Cardamine radicata and C. dictiospetma, and 

 Aciphylla procumbens had taken over their share in that ever- 

 transforming work of nature. 



Arrived at the cairn (5,o6g feet), almost every sign of vege- 

 tation, with the exception of some small bushes of Orites 

 acicularis, with their branches bleaching in the glaring sun- 

 light, was left behind, and the only new discovery made there 

 was that we had amongst us the first lady who ever ascended 

 these lofty altitudes. After a stay for three hours — far too 

 short to completely realize all those wonderful intricacies of 

 nature's grandest architecture — we turned reluctantly and 

 descended, arriving at sunset at our camp. 



The following two days of the 4th and 6th were devoted to a 

 visit to two charming mountain tarns and Mount Brown. 

 Setting out from our camp for Lake Lyla and Dove Lake, we 

 sharply descend through a little cluster of Eucalyptus Gunnii 

 and Leptospermnm myrtifolium, stepping out on to the open 

 collecting amongst the button-grass the almost hidden iris, 

 Campynema lineare, and Pterostylis miitica. Wide stretches of 

 ground are covered with small bushes of the cream and pink- 

 coloured Melaleuca squamc&a ; in rocky places Gaultheria hispida 

 surprises us ; and where the waters percolate the gently 

 falling ground on broad stretches towards the shores an in- 

 experienced eye would surely overlook, amongst the sward of 

 Restia complanatus and R. australis, the tiny specimens of 

 Actinotus stiff ocata and A. bellidioides, the pink-flowering 

 Forstera bellidijolia, Mitrasacme montana and M. Archeri, and 

 Abrotanella scapigera. In the rich dark loamy soil, without 

 the protecting presence of rushes and grasses, display Claytonia 

 Aiistralasica, Drosera arcUiri, a,nd Oxalis Magellanica, theiv sno'w- 

 white flowers in uncountable masses, occasionally relieved by 

 the red of Stylidium graminifolium, the pale pink of Boronia 

 polygalifolia, the blue and white star-like flowers of the little 

 Herpolirion novcB-zealandicc growing almost level with the 



