THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 215 



Mangrove, and one possessed by mud-loving plants of other 

 countries, such as Sonneratia, sp., and La<jiincularia racemosa, 

 &c,, is the thrusting up through the mud of what appear to be 

 at first sight, so many small dead stems of seedlings. These are 

 the pneumataphores, or organs by which the plant obtains 

 oxygen for its roots, which would otherwise be asphyxiated in 

 the dense, evil-smelling mud. 



Of grass land there is in all about 2,000 acres worthy of the 

 name, distributed in isolated parts. One area is at the Derby 

 River, and another in the valley between the Oberon and Norgate 

 Ranges, and stretching miles inland easterly from Oberon Bay. 

 This division of the vegetation consists principally of Garex 

 ccespitosa, C. pseitdocyperus, and the true grasses Aloj^ecurus 

 prateusis, Festuca hookeriana, and Poa ccespiiosa 



The gully vegetation is poor both in quality and quantity, and 

 particularly noticeable is the numerical poverty of ferns. The 

 botanical section made a special effort to find something of the 

 typical Dandenong, Otway, or Black Spur valley shrubberies, but 

 without success. With the exception of Roaring Meg Creek and 

 a few other small streams in the south the ferny and thickly- 

 shrubbed watercourses and valleys appear to be confined to the 

 sheltered east coast. There is a too abrupt transition from the 

 small stream, dashing down amongst granite boulders on the 

 steep hillsides, to the quiet tea-tree swamp and sedgy morass, 

 to allow of the growths we sought, the lack of humus on the 

 higher parts being very evident. Where tree-ferns did appear it 

 seemed that in most cases the Hill Tree-fern, Alsophila australis, 

 grew at the creeks, often to the exclusion of Dicksonia hillardieri, 

 but not on the slopes ; though on several of the creeks the King- 

 fern, Osinuiida barbara, exercised a monopoly as regards large 

 ferns. 



In the fioral colouring of the landscape at Christmas the 

 innumerable tints of the foliage of tea-tree, banksia, eucalyptus, 

 and casuarina ranged from dark green to golden yellow, but of 

 flowers the predominating colours were blues and yellows, reds, 

 purples, and whites being rarer. On granite-sandy soil of the 

 slopes at the foot of Mt. Vereker, at south corner of Corner Basin, 

 and elsewhere, fine waves of blue are given to the landscape by 

 beds of the purple orchid Glossodia rfiajor, the Blue-bell, Wahhn- 

 bergia gracilis, and the blue pin-cushion, Brwwnia cmstralii, 

 sometimes intermingled, but often each species forming individual 

 patches. Of this latter exclusive habit two species of Lobelia 

 were conspicuous— the tall, pale blue L. rhombijolia, and the 

 shorter and dark blue L. simplicicaulis. L. anc^ps flowered well, 

 but in proportionately small quantity. 



Of yellow flowers the genus Helichrysum presented most 

 species, several kinds of " everlastings " being common. Two 



