THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXVI. 



By INIiss Raff. — Nodular swellings on branch of She-oak, 

 Gasuarina distyla. 



By Mr. W. Thorn.— Specimen of mistletoe growing on tree 

 lucerne. 



By Mr. J. Wilcox. — The rotifer, Megalotrocha alboflavicans, 

 under microscope. 



.■\.fter the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 



EXCURSION TO BEVERIDGE. 



This excursion took place on Saturday, 13th March, and was 

 arranged for the purpose of visiting the extinct crater marked on 

 maps of Victoria as Mount Bland, but locally known as Mount 

 Eraser, after some previous owner of the property. Though the 

 afternoon threatened to be showery, and the locality is generally 

 considered an uninteresting one, the leader was pleased to have 

 a following of 17 members and friends, including several ladies. 

 Four of the party motored up from town (25 miles), and joined 

 the others at the railway station. Mt. Bland, or Beveri'lge Hill, 

 as it is also known, can be easily seen on the northern horizon 

 from the more elevated parts of Melbourne, such as the higher 

 parts of Carlton, and from there lies a little to the west of due 

 north. To travellers along the Sydney road or the North- 

 Eastern railway, it is a prominent object, especially as one 

 descends the Dividing Range towards Wallan, and no doubt 

 Hume and Hovel), when, after troublous times around !Mt. 

 Disappointment, in December, 1824, they crossed the Divide just 

 about the locality of the present railway line, and saw the bold 

 mass standing up before them, made directly for it, as it is on 

 record that they named it Mt. Bland on the 14th December, 

 1824, after a Dr. Bland, of Sydney, a patron of their expedition, 

 and took their bearings thence to Aitken's Hill, near Somerton, 

 10 miles further south — another interesting locality to tlie field 

 worker, and the site of former excursions of this Club {Vict. Nat., 

 xviii., p. 33). Beveridge station is 989 feet above sea-level, and 

 as the mount is little more than half a mile from the station, the 

 gradual slope towards the summit commences almost at once. 

 One of the members had brought an aneroid, and we were thus 

 able to obtain a few approximate heights as we proceeded. Just 

 where the ground seems to make a decided slope upwards on the 

 southern side we found the height to be 1,160 feet. Thence to 

 the lowest portion of the southern rim — in fact, except the breach, 

 the lowest part of the rim — was a steeper ascent of 90 feet, or a 

 total of 1,250 feet. The outlook here was extremely interesting. 

 Fifty feet below was the floor of the crater, a perfectly level little 

 plain, about 180 yards in diameter, while all round in almost a 

 perfect circle rose the encircling rim, except towards the north 



