THK VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 151 



Walk. ; Tortricopsis euryphanella, Meyr. ; Heliocausta euselma, 

 Meyr. ; Zonopet;ila decisana, Walk. ; Mosoda consolatrix, Ros. ; 

 Philobota iphigenes, Meyr.; Anestia ombrophanes, Meyr.; Bondia 

 nigella, Newm. : Epidesmia tryxaria, (Jn. — Jas. A. Kershaw. 



Botany. — On leaving our entomological friends at the entrance 

 to the Gully proper the botanists at once began their search for 

 such lowly forms of plant life as mosses, lichens, and hepatics, and 

 with considerable success. The Gully, doubtless owing to the 

 number of holiday-makers which visit it, is hardly the cryptogamic 

 botanist's paradise it used to be, still the ramble through its shady 

 nooks and corners revealed many species we thought would have 

 long since disappeared. Charmed by the delightful aroma of the 

 surrounding vegetation, slowly and almost imperceptibly we 

 reached the head of the main gully, and betook ourselves to the 

 excellently graded path which crosses its head and finally takes 

 the tourist out on to the top of the ridge, from whence extensive 

 views of the Mornington Peninsula and Western Port Bay are 

 easily obtainable. 



Short descriptions of some of the more prominent mosses will, 

 I hope, be of service to some of our members, and perhaps 

 induce them to become students of this charming group of 

 plants. 



One of the first mosses to attract the attention in almost any 

 of our fern gullies is probably the lovely species Cyathophorum 

 pennatum, which presently we found in fruit. The fronds here 

 were about 3 inches long, but at the Blacks' Spur I have obtained 

 them 6 inches long,' and 12 inches long at Mt. Wellington, in 

 Tasmania. Tiiis plant has frequently been collected as a fern, 

 but with ferns it has nothing in common except locality. It will be 

 well, therefore, to give some description of it. It is peculiarly 

 well named, for the name means cup-bearing feather ; it hangs 

 on the old logs that have seen their day and have at last fallen 

 over the stream, when this plant steps in and throws a mantle over 

 them in feathery masses of greenery, very often in the company 

 of the filmy ferns Hymenophyllum and Trichomanes, and some- 

 times dipping into the water. The leaves are distichous, very 

 flat, bright green and translucent, whilst the smaller dorsal leaves 

 are rounded. The fruit-stalk is very short, and is inserted in a 

 cup-shaped sheath on the under surface of the stem. The 

 capsules are large, ovoid, and pale brown, with a niagnificent 

 double peristome. This peristome will reward close examination ; 

 it is a row or rows of teeth around the mouth of the capsule, and 

 is a good guide in many instances to the genus of a moss plant ; 

 they are arranged in series of 8, 16, 32, 64, &c., and are some- 

 times double and treble. They are also of various colours — 

 brown, red, yellow, or white, with intermediate tints ; when 

 placed under the microscope as opaque objects they are exquisite. 



