THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 185 



that it had little difficulty in displacing its predecessor of the 

 genus — perhaps because it was not also in evidence — from pride 

 of place in my estimation. Right near the edge of the water, in 

 close association and almost buried in the sand, were Mimulus 

 repens and a minute Heleocharis, probably acicitlaris. 



In one of my excursions I made a fruitless search for 

 the rich patch near Antwerp from which Mr. St. Eloy D'Alton 

 gathered the fine collection he so kindly sent to our show a 

 couple of years ago. I was, however, rewarded, in prospecting a 

 sand-ridge running alongside the road, by finding quite a number 

 of those very interesting small Composites so characteristic of the 

 Mallee. In the moister parts, near the base of the ridge, were 

 Angianthus strictus and the not very different Myrioceplialus 

 rhizocephalus and Isoetojysis graminifolia. On the ridge, Podo- 

 theca angustifolia, its curiously elongated headlets constricted 

 near the summits and barely showing their few and inconspicuous 

 florets, was pretty common. This and Toxanthus niiieileri, 

 looking more like the wraith of itself than a real plant, and which 

 would appear to be somewhat rare, as I only gathered three or 

 four specimens and only in this place, had minute grains of sand 

 closely adherent to their every part. Gnaphalodes idiginosa was 

 in close communities, sometimes consisting of a mere headlet, 

 sometimes of several, on slender straggling branches with 

 withered leaves, radiating from the very short stem. The 

 headlets, with their pale slate-green leaf bracts, white tomentum, 

 and minute straw-coloured florets, made a very attractive picture 

 against the clean white sand. Near by a few specimens of the 

 very small brownish Helipterum exiguum and a couple only of 

 Calotis hispidula were gathered, but Gnephosis skirrophora and 

 the slender Millotia tenuijolia were in greater numbers. 



A sand-hill in another locality presented quite different 

 features. All these small Composites were conspicuous by their 

 absence, and instead I found clumps of Mallee, bushes of Banksia 

 ornata, with black, ugly cones, and low bushes with contorted 

 branches of the sub-spinescens variety of Aotis villosa. The 

 grasses were solely represented by Triodia irritans, and right 

 in the tussocks, illustrating the proverb about birds of a 

 feather, was growing Erioatemon pungens. In fact, each tussock 

 seemed to have its pretty little protege, and it was only by 

 discreetly stamping on the mass that one could gather a specimen 

 without getting wounded in the process. Alongside, and seem- 

 ingly also under the protection of the Porcupine Grass, was 

 usually to be seen the little Crucifer, Sisijmbrhim cardaminoides. 

 Loudonia behrii, in big clumps, crowned with beautiful fluttering 

 yellow pennons, and a species of Stackhousia with yellow flowers, 

 either ^av« or viminea, and growing also in tussocky form, helped 

 to give colour to a somewhat harsh landscape. Other plants 

 noticed were PultencHa laxijiora (the only species met with), 



