114 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



couple of hours. After crossing the George's River at Como the 

 hne on either side was bordered with wild flowers, but it was 

 still early (14th August), and a few weeks later must have been a 

 fine sight. I envied Sydney folks their beautiful natural park, so 

 near the city (18 miles by rail), where people are allowed to take 

 flowers in reasonable quantities as long as not for sale. How- 

 ever, the removal of palm leaves is prohibited. 



Next morning I called upon our fellow-member, Mr. Thos. 

 Steel, and spent tiie evening with Mr. A. H. S. Lucas. The 

 afternoon was spent in a ramble over the waste country on the 

 northern side of the suspension bridge over Flat Rock Creek — 

 a splendid place for the botanist and within two and a half miles 

 of the Milson's Point ferry. Here I saw many interesting plants, 

 but unfortunately was not familiar with all their specific names. 

 Styphelias, Grevilleas, Hakeas, and Boronias were in abundance, 

 and the orchid Caladenia deforinis was very plentiful. I 

 obtained plants of a very pretty fern, Llndsai/a microphijlla, and 

 saw several other ferns. Smilax glycyfhylla, the Australian 

 Sarsaparilla, was very beautiful, with its brown-tinted foliage, 

 climbing among the acacia and other shrubs. A couple of 

 Waratahs were seen, and the spot is well worthy of a visit by any 

 naturalist when in Sydney. 



The next day Mr. J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., kindly drove me to 

 the Centennial Park, when making his weekly inspection, and 

 gave me some account of the enormous amount of work which 

 has been done there in order to turn a barren, sandy waste, some- 

 thing like our Fisherman's Bend at Port Melbourne, into the 

 commencement of a magnificent park, where, I understand, on 

 Sundays and holidays thousands of Sydneyites may be seen 

 imbibing the fresh air borne in from the adjacent ocean. 

 Numerous groups, each of a diff'erent species of acacia, have been 

 planted, which, when they attain the flowering age, will be worth 

 seeing. Several ponds will doubtless afford plenty of scope for 

 students of microscopic aquatic life, and taking one thing with 

 another I cannot understand why a Field Naturalists' Club, or at 

 any rate a Botanical Society, does not exist in Sydney. After 

 very hospitable treatment from Mr. Maiden, I paid another visit 

 to the Australian Museum, where Mr. R. Etheridge, jun., the 

 Director, kindly showed me all the working part of the museum, 

 and the splendid facilities they possess for carrying on that grand 

 institution. With a hasty glance at some of Mr. North's oological 

 treasures my visit to Sydney came to an end, and I was once more 

 obliged to thread my way through a confused mass of lorries and 

 carts laden with boxes, crates, or bales, &c., of cargo before I 

 could get on board the steamer, which in due time landed me 

 safe and sound in Melbourne again after an absence of just six 

 weeks. 



