96 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



rewarded, as in addition to a couple of the large Curculio, Leptops 

 tribidus, which we got on the common wattle, we saw only some 

 longicorns of the genus Phoracantha, which are plentiful enough 

 nearer Melbourne, and of which therefore we did not take any. 

 These were all taking shelter under the loose bark of the eucalypts. 

 We left Great Western on Saturday, loth November, and reached 

 home the same evening. 



Although our three weeks' trip was not a particularly successful 

 one from a collector's point of view, we have no reason to be 

 dissatisfied, and can only say that should opportunity offer we 

 shall be glad indeed to make a similar one another summer, but 

 would prefer a rather later start, say about the end of first week in 

 November. 



A BOTANICAL TRIP TO EMERALD. 



By H. T. Tisdall and C. Wallis. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists^ Club of Victoria, I2th August, 1901.) 



Emerald, though figuring largely on many maps of Victoria, is 

 but the nucleus of a village. It is situated in the south-eastern 

 portion of the Dandenong Ranges, about thirty miles east of 

 Melbourne. Its railway station is tlie highest (1,045 f'^'^O ^'^ 

 the new Gembrook line, which commences at Ferntree Gully. 

 This line is built on the narrow gauge system, and the passenger 

 cars are an exact copy of an ordinary tramcar, only much simpler 

 in finish. 



The train meanders slowly through some lovely scenery, 

 winding in and out, now round a spur from whence the whole 

 country towards Western Port Bay can be viewed, and then 

 turning sharply towards the head of some narrow gully which has 

 a silver streamlet trickling down its bed, while its banks are 

 clothed with a dense mass of undergrowth, from whence spring 

 huge eucalypts, dominating the scene with their gigantic stems 

 and massive boughs. The hillsides are much more sparsely 

 clothed. Where the axe or fire has been at work the ubiquitous 

 Bracken Fern has taken possession, and has completely covered 

 their devastating effects. Elsewhere the graceful Hill Fern Tree, 

 A/sophila attslralis, may be observed rising above the lower 

 bushes of Cassinia aculeala, Indigofera australis, and a host of 

 leguminous and other plants. Some magnificent specimens of 

 Blackwood or Lightwood, Acacia tnelanoxylon, may be seen 

 between Monbulk and Menzies' Creek railway stations. The 

 principal gums observed were the Yellow Box, E. melliodora, 

 Stringybark, E. capitellata, Messmate, E. obliqua, and White 

 Gum, E. j)auciJiora. 



Our trip was taken one day last May, and on arriving at 

 Emerald station we found a friend waiting with a vehicle to take 



